Dhaka, Aug 10 (IANS): Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has revealed that his boys were motivated to win the five-match T20 International series against Australia because the two teams rarely played on a regular basis, and that his side had never won a series against the visitors.
Ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman in October-November this year, Bangladesh received a huge boost as they defeated Australia 4-1 in the five-match T20I series which concluded on Monday, with Shakib Al Hasan returning amazing bowling figures of 4/9.
Shakib's four wickets and Mohammad Saifuddin's 3/12 helped Bangladesh decimate Australia for 62 all out -- their lowest T20I score -- on Monday night as the hosts won the match by 60 after they had scored 122/8 in the allotted 20 overs.
"There is always a motivation when you play the bigger teams -- normally those which don't visit our country that often," Shakib said.
"Also, we had a really good series in Zimbabwe and so everyone was pretty motivated to do well in this series as well. We had never won a series against Australia, and so this was our chance. Hence, we wanted to deliver well as a unit, which is what happened," Shakib was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Following his four-wicket haul, Shakib became the second bowler to take 100 T20Is wickets, joining Lasith Malinga on the list. He now has 102 wickets, only five short of the Sri Lankan pace bowler at an average of 20.83 and an economy of just 6.80.
"Any such achievement obviously feels good. This kind of personal achievement inspires you to do well for your side… I am really happy, and I feel I will be able to contribute for many more days and would be striving for that."
On the low scores in the series, Shakib said, "We could have perhaps scored 10 or 15 more runs in every match, since we were in situations where doing it was possible. But the wickets were so difficult [to bat on] that it was always tough for a new batsman [to play]. So it would be unfair to judge someone on the basis of just one series because the conditions were really tough for the batsmen."