The century was not an issue for me: Mehidy on his sedate knock

Bangladesh captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz emphasised that he wasn't striving for a century but only looking to put as many runs on the board as possible in the opening ODI against West Indies a St Kitts. Mehidy scored a sedate 101-ball 74 in the Bangladesh's total of 294, a score that the hosts, powered by a Sherfane Rutherford ton, hauled down with 14 balls to spare for a streak-ending win.

Mehidy emphasised that building a partnership was the need of the hour after the visitors lost two early wickets and then also the well-set Tanzid Hasan through the middle overs just when his partnership with the opener was blossoming.

"The century was not an issue for me and all I needed was to take the team to a good place. I tried to play for runs and put up a good score before 40 overs because I was feeling that in this wicket if we could post 300 plus it would have been good for us and that is the reason I played for runs," Mehidy said after the defeat.

"Look when I started, a set batsman got out and in fact two set batters got out as Tanzim was out and after doing a partnership Afif also I could not take risk because I knew if a set batsman gets out, it will be a pressure for the new batsman and so I tried to continue. And when Riyad [Mahmudullah] bhai got set I tried to take the charge," he said.

"The way Jaker Ali and Riyad bhai finished was brilliant and if that was not the case the runs could [have been] lesser but we played well as a batting unit," he said.

Mehidy admitted that the team was lacking on substantial experience with the likes of Mushfiqur Rahim, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Towhid Hridoy missing out with injuries but added that this was a greater learning opportunity for those playing.

"If there are senior cricketers in the team they gave a lot of output and give information but Riyad bhai gave a lot of information and Litton Das also helped.

"Another thing is that it is challenging in their own backyard and our bowlers despite bowling well could learn a lot from these kinds of matches like how to handle pressure... they will learn from these kinds of matches and I feel there are lots of positives from this game for us," he said.

Mehidy retained optimism that the three-match series could still be won despite Bangladesh's own recent form of losing four of the last five ODI series they've contested. "We still have a chance because we have just lost one game and if we can win the next game we can have the opportunity to win the series," he said.

"Batting wise we batted well and put up a good total and our bowlers also started well but in the middle overs, they did a partnership and we could not get wickets and that middle-over partnership put us in the back foot," he said.

"Our bowlers did well in the first half [of the chase] as the game was in our control for first 25 to 30 overs and they took the game away from us in the last 20 overs when they charged, but still I feel we have lot of positives... like our batsmen did well and bowlers bowled well initially and we could have won the game if we could improve on certain areas."