'We were so close': Mahmudullah recalls Bangladesh's heartbreaking 1-run loss to India in T20 World Cup 2016

Dhaka:

T20 World Cup 2016. Must-win game for India at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Bangladesh need only two runs off three balls to win and knock India out of a home World Cup in Super 10 round. Result? India win by one run. What happened on those last three deliveries then? Mushfiqur Rahim got out trying to finish with a big shot. Mahmdullah tried the same on the next delivery and perished and then came the famous run-out from MS Dhoni that caught Mustafizur Rahman short. India prevailed in a nail-biter and Bangladesh were left in a state of shock.

How did they lose this? This was the question on every cricket fan's mind. The same question still lingers in Mahmudullah's mind, too. Exactly a year after announcing his retirement from international cricket, the veteran cricketer has revealed that he is still hurting with the loss and learned the biggest lesson of his cricketing career from that game.

Mahmudullah and Rahim brought Bangladesh so close to beating India but couldn't finish it off. "I do not know (what happened in that game against India). That was tragic. It was very heartbreaking. I think it was extremely heartbreaking. We cried on the ground. When we got back to the hotel we cried. Me, Mushfiqur Rahim, we all cried. Many other members were crying as well because we were so close to beating India.

 

"But personally, in my life that was a very life-changing lesson for me. You drag it to the last ball and you finish it off. At that particular moment I was thinking that if we just hit one boundary we would win. To be honest, that was dumb," Mahmudullah said in a podcast Simply Sayeed.

I wanted to bat at four or five always, says Mahmudullah

Mahmudullah also went on to say that he always wanted to bat at four or five but his batting position was often altered and he often found it difficult to refuse requests from former national captain Mashrafe Mortaza. He also said that it was him who had to sacrifice his batting position most of the times but was happy that he could do what the team wanted. "Deep inside I wanted to bat at number four or five. But I never raised my voice like that. I stayed quiet. If the opportunity comes, then I want to grab it.

"Because over the years, Alhamdulillah, the amount of sacrifices I made in terms of batting position for the Bangladesh team, I think nobody did it. I did have a preference, but I had to sacrifice. Alhamdulillah, I am not complaining about anything. I was happy that if I could do what the team wanted and if the team produced results and did well, that was fine. I did not complain.

"(For example) Mashrafe bhai would come and say to me, 'Riyad, you are batting at four today - tomorrow you will bat at five.' I would say, 'Alright, okay.' If I scored runs at five he would say, 'Alright, today bat at six.' I would say, 'Okay, fine. If you say so, no problem.' In this way my batting order changed quite often," Mahmudullah added.

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