Taunton - Shakib admitted his match-winning 124 in Bangladesh's victory over the West Indies ranked as one of the best moments of his career
Published: Wed 19 Jun 2019, 11:59 PM
When the World Cup started, few people would have thought that Shakib Al Hasan would be among the highest run-getters in one-day cricket's showpiece event.
Of course, Shakib's superb all-round skills has made him the most famous Bangladeshi cricketer in history. But nobody expected him to be the leading scorer in a tournament where modern batting giants like Virat Kohli, David Warner, Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch are vying for glory.
And yet, it's Shakib who is now sitting pretty at the top-scorers' list with 384 runs, having scored his second century of the tournament on Monday.
Shakib admitted his match-winning 124 in Bangladesh's victory over the West Indies ranked as one of the best moments of his career.
Shakib's majestic display paved the way for Bangladesh to record the second highest run chase in World Cup history as they reached 322-3 at Taunton on Monday.
Hitting 16 fours in his unbeaten 99-ball innings, Shakib was well supported by Liton Das, who scored 94 from 69 balls in his first World Cup appearance.
The pair's unbroken stand of 189 was the second highest for the fourth wicket in World Cup history. It was a memorable day for Shakib, who rated both his performance and his team's among the greatest he has experienced.
"It's obviously one of the best, because the way we chased that run, the way I paced the innings, I was never in a rush. I didn't have to play too many shots from a good ball," he told reporters.
"I had to be patient. And I was patient enough to put the bad ball away. "I think every time I did that quite well. And it's one of the key things in my batting in this chase." Only Ireland's 329-7 against England in 2011 stands as a bigger World Cup run chase.
In the course of the West Indies match he became just the second player to score 6,000 career ODI runs for the Tigers. His heroics have kept Bangladesh in with a chance of making the semifinals and Shakib hopes there are more golden moments to come.
"I don't know if this is the best I have been batting or not, but so far it's going well and fingers crossed, hope it continues," he said.
But Shakib insisted Bangladesh never doubted they could overhaul the West Indies' total of 321-8.
In the end they reached the target with 8.3 overs to spare thanks to Shakib and Das.
"At the end of the first innings in the dressing room no one felt that this was tough. Everyone was comfortable and was chilling," he said.
"It gave a lot of confidence in the dressing room and belief that we could chase that run.
"Once we started batting, I think the way the openers started their innings, everyone in the dressing room felt good and comfortable and relaxed.
"That helped us a lot. So at no point of time we had to panic."
The victory kept fifth-placed Bangladesh firmly in the hunt for a semifinal berth ahead of their next match against table-toppers Australia at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
In Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, Australia have two of the top three wicket-takers at this World Cup but Shakib said his team showed they could handle the best quicks in the world against South Africa, New Zealand, England and West Indies.
"We've faced some of the best fast bowlers in the last four matches - every team has at least two bowlers who bowl 140 kph and we've coped well so we're not worried about that," he added.
"We are a skilled team and we are capable of countering those challenges."
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