Angelo Mathews missed out on his second double hundred by 1 run as Bangladesh dismissed Sri Lanka for 397 runs in the first Test in Chittagong on Monday while Mathews became the 4th batsman in Test history to get bowled out on 199.
Angelo Mathews missed out on his double century by 1 run as Bangladesh dismissed Sri Lanka for 397 runs in the first Test in Chittagong on Monday.
Mathews became the 14th batsman in Test history to get bowled out on 199 and missed out on what would have been his second Test double hundred.
”Obviously, it would have been nice to get that one run but you have to take what God gives you. I am thankful that I was able to play a good knock. Hopefully, it will help us win the game,”
Mathews told reporters after the second day’s play.
“Getting that one run off the last ball with the last man, I wanted to get to the double-hundred. I miscalculated it, and unfortunately, Shakib caught it (laughs). It would have been nice to get that one run but again, cricket…”
he said.
“I was exhausted, to be honest, especially in the heat. It was 42 degrees, boiling in the middle. But I knew that once I get a start, no matter what the situation and condition are if I am set, I need to carry through. That’s why we do the fitness etc to play in extreme conditions. We are thankful to the trainers for pushing all of us. Whatever conditions you get, you have to perform to the best of your ability. A lot of work is being put behind the scenes by all the coaches,”
he added.
Mathews survived a few close calls as he took a review on 38, and was dropped on 69 by Mahmudul Hasan on the first day while in the morning neither Khaled Ahmed nor wicketkeeper Liton Das appealed despite him nicking the ball that was found on the TV replay.
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure at the time. I was a bit surprised. I didn’t hear it, so I asked if Liton heard. But if I didn’t hear, Liton didn’t hear. But again, these things happen. I thought that I nicked it when I missed the ball to the left-arm spinner Taijul. But I hadn’t nicked it. Those are moments when you, as a batter, are not sure,”
said Mathews.
“These things happen in cricket. But on the day, you get lucky. On other days, you get unlucky. You have to take it as it comes. Cricket is such that you bowl badly, you get wickets; you bowl well, you don’t get wickets. Likewise for the batters: you play well and you still get out. You have to take what cricket offers you,”
he said.
“I didn’t think we bowled our best today. I thought we gave a few freebies today. They played well but we didn’t make them work hard for their runs. I thought they went at a good rate, and we bowled some loose balls. We need to start tight tomorrow,”
he said.
”It is a par score on this really good wicket. Bangladesh bowled extremely well. They didn’t give anything away. No freebies. They bowled to a line and length. They put us under a lot of pressure, made us work hard for our runs. Eventually, they got the results. We lost a few quick wickets. We lost our way in the middle. I thought we were about 50-60 runs short. We wanted somewhere around 500 runs,”
he concluded.