Hathurusingha expects more from Tigers

After their first series triumph against Pakistan earlier in April, hosts Bangladesh have an opportunity to register a maiden series win against their other sub-continent rival, India. The neighbours will clash in the second of a three-match ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday. It is set to start at 3pm local time. Bangladesh lead the series 1-0 with a convincing 79-run win in the first game on Thursday.
Although the Tigers convincingly beat India in the first ODI, coach Chandika Hathurusingha thinks his side can do much better. In the first match on Thursday, the hosts notched the psychological 300-run mark before their bowlers carved up the 79-run win, their biggest win against the second-ranked ODI team. The coach, however, is positive that the Tigers have room for improvement - an observation that is quite intimidating for the tourists. “I am not happy at all with the last game. That’s the scary part (for the opponents): we still can improve in all departments. “We played better against Pakistan. I think we are looking to improve from the next game,” the Sri Lankan said at a pre-match press conference on Saturday. After the openers had set Bangladesh off to a flier in the last match, a top-order collapse derailed their charge momentarily.
Despite Shakib Al Hasan and Sabbir Rahman regaining some momentum in the middle order, Bangladesh failed to maintain the push in the death overs and were all out for 307. Later, Shakib said they were at least 25 runs short than projected score. Hathurusingha is mostly concerned about the batting. “When you get a start, we always talk about going big in partnerships. We talk about simple things, which we did well against Pakistan. “I want them to do that in the middle. We had 3-4 hundreds against Pakistan. If one of the top batters get set and go for a big score, it helps us to score big runs,” according to a news agency.