Mirpur (Bangladeh), June 19 (IANS): India batsman Suresh Raina on Friday said the 79-run defeat by hosts Bangladesh in the first of the three One-Day International (ODI) series here was painful but insisted that they are still a better team and would come back stronger.
India lost by 79 runs on Thursday. After conceding 307 runs with the ball, the visitors allowed themselves to be skittled out for 228 in 46 overs. Three of their batsmen did not even reach double figures.
"Bangladesh outplayed us in every department. Having said that, all the five wickets that Mustafizur Rahman took, he got them off the slower ball and got our set batsmen, first Rohit and then me. When Ravindra Jadeja and I were batting, I believed that if we could stretch it out for five more overs, we would have won it," Raina was quoted as saying by bcci.tv.
"This loss is a bit shocking for us and it is hurting a lot. Yes, they played better than us today but we are still a better team."
Raina credited Bangladesh for their performance. Bangladesh have recently made rapid strides in ODIs.
"Their cricket is improving day by day but we are on a different level. We didn’t play well today. But we still have two games left and we need to put in all our energy in making a strong comeback. One defeat doesn’t make us a bad side. As Ravi bhai (Shastri) just told us, the way we come back will show our character.”
The left-handed batsman said the target of 308 runs was within India's reach but some quality bowling by the hosts turned the game around.
"We should have chased it, especially given the strength of our batting line-up. But their debutant left-arm pacer bowled really well and the two breakthroughs that Taskin (Ahmed) gave them in the form of Shikhar (Dhawan) and Virat (Kohli) was game-changing. After that we never really managed a good partnership besides the one between Ravindra Jadeja and me. That hurt us,” he said.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman were fined on Friday by the International Cricket Council (ICC) following their mid-pitch collision during the match. Dhoni was fined 75 per cent of his match fee, while Mustafizur was docked half of his fee.
Speaking on the incident, Raina defended his skipper. "It would have been disturbing had one of our batsmen got run-out because of that. He collided with Rohit Sharma and then MS Dhoni."
"Anyone could have been seriously hurt. He has to learn to stay away from the pitch when the batsmen are running. The umpires need to have a chat with him about it. If he doesn’t change this habit, it will be very difficult for him," Raina concluded.