Mashrafe, Afridi praise Bangladeshi debutant Mustafizur

Mustafizur’s debut was a successful one

Mirpur, April 25 (IANS) Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman bowled superbly on debut in the lone Twenty20 International against Pakistan and both the captains had some special words for him.

Mustafizur returned with 2/20 from four overs on Friday that helped the home team to their first T20I win over Pakistan by seven wickets at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here, reports bdnews24.com.

The 19-year-old bowled with variations to make life difficult for Pakistani batsmen from the outset.

"He bowled brilliantly on his debut. The more support pacers get, the better they do and the more they bowl well, the higher our chances of winning a match," Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza said.

Mustafizur conceded only five runs in his first two overs. After giving Pakistani batsman Ahmed Shehzad a hard time, going past the edge several times, Mustafizur sent Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi back for his first international wicket.

"It can be guessed that a match changes if Afridi bats for 10 overs. But the way Mustafizur bowled was extraordinary. It was our strategy that we would bring in Mustafizur when Afridi would bat," said Mortaza.

"Our plan was successful. We knew he (Afridi) would try to hit. But Mustafizur bowled the delivery well. We are lucky that we got Afridi quite easily."

The Pakistan T20I captain also lauded Mustafizur.

"In my opinion, the start wasn't good. They bowled really well, especially the new left-arm bowler, I don't remember his name. He bowled very maturely with many variations. He did very well," said Afridi.