Bangladesh coach proud of team’s fighting spirit

BIRMINGHAM: Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes said he was “proud” of the way his team had fought against top sides at the World Cup even though they had ultimately fallen short.Mashrafe Mortaza’s side lost to India by 28 runs at Edgbaston on Tuesday to end their hopes of a place in the semi-finals. Bangladesh impressed during wins over South Africa and the West Indies and put in a spirited effort against defending champions Australia.The Tigers fought back to limit India to 314 for nine here on Tuesday after Rohit Sharma’s 104 but they could only manage 286 all out despite 66 from star batsman Shakib Al Hasan.“You know, it could well have been 370, 380, even 400 at one stage,” said Rhodes. “So we were delighted that we showed a lot of spirit and a lot of fight to come back. “It was pleasing to see some fight. I think it’s a reflection of the team. We’ve only picked up the three victories.“I’m very proud of the way we’ve played against a lot of the big teams, and I think that maybe we’ll be the people’s team for the amount of fight that we’ve shown.” Bangladesh take on Pakistan in their final league game on Friday (tomorrow) and Rhodes said it would be a competitive match.“I’m really looking forward to that game. I think we beat them in the Asia Cup, and they’ll want to change that (Bangladesh won by 37 runs in 2018),” said Rhodes. “We showed in some of the games we played this year that we’re going to be a difficult side for Pakistan to beat. “We know we’ll have to play well again because they’ve run into a little bit of form in the back end of the tournament. But we’re confident.”

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