Towhid Hridoy sounded more relieved than triumphant after Bangladesh eased past Hong Kong in their Asia Cup opener, the middle-order batter fielding a string of questions about why the side did not hurry to improve net run-rate. Bangladesh needed just 144 and got there in 17.4 overs, a comfortable enough finish but well short of the sub-12-over mark that would have lifted them above Afghanistan on the table.
“We wanted to ensure that the match doesn’t slip away from us,” Hridoy told reporters. “We tried to end the game early but I couldn’t connect the ball that well. I think the result is more important than finishing one or two overs earlier. You (the media) would have had something to say had we lost today.”
Those comments set the tone for a press conference that never quite moved beyond the same talking point. Hridoy kept circling back to risk management, even as journalists wondered whether Bangladesh’s measured tempo betrayed a lack of ambition. “We could have finished the game earlier but we stuck to the demands of the situation. Our mentality is to always win. I think we played smart cricket,” he said. “We could have finished two or three overs earlier, but we could have lost one or two more wickets. We must prioritise partnerships. We tried to hit more boundaries, but it didn’t happen.”
From a purely numerical perspective Bangladesh scored at 8.28 an over, leaving 14 balls unused. To overtake Afghanistan’s net run-rate of 4.70 they would have needed to finish inside 12 overs—effectively a power-play style assault for the full chase. Captain Litton Das, speaking at the presentation rather than to the press, hinted the surface never encouraged that. The pitch in Abu Dhabi gripped, the square boundaries felt long, and the ball softened quickly, limiting big-hit options.
Hridoy added a rhetorical note: “So, should we have gone to the ground to lose against Hong Kong? Our target was to win. Every team can have their day in T20s. Maybe we could have finished earlier had I struck a few more boundaries.”
Looking ahead, Bangladesh face Afghanistan and Sri Lanka next. “We want to beat Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, so run-rate isn’t what we are worried about at this stage. We don’t want to complicate matters so early in the tournament,” Hridoy concluded, leaving little doubt that, for now, safety trumps speed.
