Mehidy bats for safety-first approach on final day

Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan said on Monday that they can save the second Test against India if their batters can hold their nerve in one session on the final day of the game. Despite two-and-a-half days being lost, India tried to force a result in the weather-hit second Test against Bangladesh on Monday on the back of blistering half-centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul.

India declared their first innings on 285-9 from just 34.4 overs after bowling out Bangladesh for 233 runs. Bangladesh in their second innings reached 26-2 in 11 overs before the stumps were drawn.

"Actually they played with a good plan and yes I was surprised. After two-three overs we were thinking that they had a plan. We just played to our strength and tried to restrict the damage to our innings," Mehidy told reporters after the day's play.

"In Test cricket you can see different scenarios and the way the game turned out it looked like T20 cricket. They planned to come here and play for a win and everyone from top to bottom played for runs and we tried to squeeze the runs," he said.

"In Test cricket anything is possible and it is not a fact that we have lost the match and we have won a lot of matches from here or did well and it is up to us to take the opportunity as the wicket is good for the batters. I think it will be challenging but if the batters can bat well for one session certainly it will be a positive sign for us," he added.

"We need more time if we want to play for a win. We have one day left, we will have to give them a target and then take 10 wickets. For now, our safety is more important than thinking about a win from here. We will try to bat for a long time tomorrow. If such a situation arises, then we may play to win. We are thinking about ourselves first," he pointed out.

Mehidy admitted that they should have given more support to centurion Mominul Haque as he feels if that was the case they would have been better placed in the game. Mominul remained unbeaten on 107 runs but hardly had enough support from other end. "The first innings is very important for Tests and Mominul bhai really batted well we could not give him support and if we could give him support in that case the game could have been different and it would have been better for us," he said.

"Mominul's selection of the ball was very good and he really played well after a while and I feel the temperament was very good and that is why he could score runs."

The allrounder also credited Shakib Al Hasan, who picked four wickets in the game, for his brilliant bowling performance while adding that his experience in the T20 format helped him understand what needs to be done when the opposition is in an aggressive mode. "He( Shakib) bowled brilliantly. The way they played on this wicket, keeping that in mind, he did bowl well. He's an experienced cricketer. They played in the T20 style, and he has had a lot of success in this format, he understood what to do."