Bangladesh’ batter Mahmudullah said that he was focused on his team net run rate more thanks century in the game against South Africa on Tuesday, October 24 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The veteran batter stepped out to bat when his team were reeling at 31 for three in 7.2 overs while chasing a huge target of 383.

Mahmudullah witnessed more setbacks from the non-striker’s end as Bangladesh found themselves at 81 for six in 22 overs. Mahmudullah kept holding the fort and batted until the 46th over, helping the Tigers to post 233. He ended up scoring 111 runs at a run-a-ball with the help of 11 fours and four sixes.

“Actually, I didn’t target my hundred – to be honest, because you just bat – when I and Mustafizur were batting in the middle, I told him – just stay on, hold on. Let us play 50 overs, let’s see what score we can get because there is an issue with the run rate because if you get out early and cheaply, it will affect our net run rate too – so I just tried to go deep, just bat and try to score some runs for the team,” Mahmudullah said in the post-match press conference.

Bangladesh lost the game by a huge margin of 149 runs and was pushed to the bottom of the table with two points and a net run rate of -1.253. The Bangladesh battle however did not comment on him batting lower down the order despite being one of Bangladesh’s stalwart batters.

“That was a good time, I think. I can’t say anything regarding that, though I do want to talk about a lot of things, but probably this is not the right time to talk about it,” he added.

Talking about the game, earlier, the Proteas won the toss and opted to bat first. Quinton de Kock starred with the bat for South Africa as he smashed his third hundred of this World Cup, making a solid 174 off 140 deliveries taking them to a strong total of 382/5.

Bangladesh’s next assignment will be against the Netherlands which is slated to take place on Saturday, October 28 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.