“It is great preparation. Playing games is so much better than hitting balls in the nets. Anything can happen in one-off games. That’s what the World Cup is like. No one goes in as ultimate favorites.”
USA tested their bench strength by resting first-choice players – captain Monank Patel, opener Steven Taylor, allrounder Harmeet Singh and fast bowler Ali Khan – and that left a big hole in their batting and bowling departments. Bangladesh capitalised on this and registered a massive win, thanks to a six-wicket haul from Mustafizur Rahman. After restricting USA to 104 for 9, Tanzid Hasan and Soumya Sarkar stitched an unbeaten 108-run opening stand to help Bangladesh to a consolation win with 50 balls to spare.
“Bangladesh are a good team, you (media) guys put them under a lot of pressure,” he said. “That’s one thing I do know. They have some of the best strikers of the cricket ball. The two batters made runs [today] with beautiful cricket shots. A couple of bowlers have good, decent pace. The spinners will always be strong from Bangladesh. They have got a good team.”
USA’s 2-0 lead heading into the third T20I gave them the rare opportunity to test their bench without worrying about the result.
“I would take a 2-1 series win against a top team any time,” Law said. “I wouldn’t read too much into [the 10-wicket defeat].
“We were in a privileged position today with the series in our hands. It was nice to give opportunities to other players. We wanted to make sure everyone had a game before they go into the World Cup, which will be cut-throat. Every game will be like a final. We have had two very good performances in the two wins here.”
Aaron Jones: USA beating India or Pakistan cannot be termed an upset
“We didn’t read the situation well in the middle overs,” Jones said. “Shot selection was a big thing for us today. We could have played the sweep shot at times. Basically as soon as the Bangladesh bowlers got on top of us, we just rolled over.
“We should have tried something more. We could have rotated the strike a lot better. It is a learning curve.”
“We are a very good team,” Jones said. “Obviously we showed that against Bangladesh, one of the best teams in the world. I wouldn’t call it an upset if we beat Pakistan or India. I will just say that we played better cricket on the day. It is a game of cricket. The bigger teams can lose as well.”
