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ESPNcricinfo staff
November 28, 2011
Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh captain, has said his side have gotten rid of the mentality of aiming for respectable losses, and now try to win every game. He said Pakistan were the favourites to win their Twenty20 match against Bangladesh in Mirpur but pointed out that West Indies were also tipped to beat Bangladesh in the Twenty20 opener of their tour, but lost.
"I think Bangladesh cricket has crossed that barrier where we aim for a respectable loss against a big team," Mushfiqur said. "That mentality is not there within this group of players. We play to win every game against whichever team.
"They're the favourites no doubt but if we play our best cricket, it won't be easy to beat us in any of the formats. West Indies were favourites against us as we don't usually play Twenty20s. At the end of the day, we bowled well and despite a hiccup in batting, we finished as winners. It will be more difficult tomorrow as Pakistan are experienced and in form, but they have to start from scratch to beat us."
The Twenty20 against West Indies was Mushfiqur's first game in charge and he took Bangladesh home in their chase with an unbeaten 41 off 26 balls. Bangladesh then lost the one-day series against West Indies 1-2 and the Tests 0-1. Mushfiqur said his bowlers had not utilised home advantage enough in the matches against West Indies and would have to now, considering how strong Pakistan's attack is.
"They [Pakistan] have one of the best bowling attacks in ODIs, so playing against them would be difficult. In our last series, we couldn't utilise the wickets. It would be necessary for us to take responsibility in this series. The team that'll take most out of the pitches, they'll get the desired results."
Bangladesh upset Pakistan during the 1999 World Cup but have not beaten them since. Mushfiqur said past Bangladesh sides were not as strong as this one is. "Bangladesh were never at their best collectively against Pakistan in the past. They have five to six match-winners so it is hard to beat a side that strong even if you give your 100%. But they are human and they could make mistakes and let us into games."
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