'If we had one big partnership, the game could’ve been different'

A little while after Bangladesh lost the first T20I against Ireland in Chattogram, Tawhid Hridoy slowly walked into the press conference. He had just played the best T20I innings of his career, but it had no impact on the team's fate.

Most of his runs came when the writing was already on the wall for Bangladesh, with his efforts only reducing the margin of defeat.

In the end, Hridoy was left ruing the lack of partnerships, which did not allow them to get going in the big chase.

Even though the target was 182, Bangladesh was optimistic at the halfway point of the contest as the wicket looked ideal for batting.

But the optimism fizzled out quickly as the hosts lost four wickets for just 20 runs in the Powerplay. By the time the score reached 74, eight wickets were gone. Hridoy took the score to 142 with help from the tail-enders, as the Tigers succumbed to a 39-run defeat.

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At no point in Bangladesh's innings did it seem they were in the contest. At one stage, the team appeared to give up hope and shifted their focus to reducing the margin of defeat. After Hridoy reached his fifty, Bangladeshi players were seen applauding from the dugout, even though the team was heading towards a heavy loss.

Hridoy, who remained unbeaten on 82 off 50 balls, felt they still could've fought back despite losing four early wickets -- if only they had managed one big stand.

"Look, if we had one big partnership, the game could've been different. Ultimately, we didn't lose by a huge margin. If there was just one solid stand… even when Jaker (Ali) and I were batting, if we could've put on 70–80 runs, the scenario might have changed."

Hridoy had put together two 48-run partnerships in the innings, the first one was for the fifth wicket with Jaker off 34 balls and the second one was for the ninth wicket with Shoriful Islam off 31 deliveries.

But despite these partnerships, Bangladesh were never really in the game.

It was also hard to understand what the team's plan was while chasing 182. After losing two wickets in the first two overs, they went into a shell for a long stretch, and the pressure of dot balls resulted in more dismissals.

Hridoy admitted the wicket wasn't to blame, "The wicket was very good. They [Ireland] played well; we didn't. There's no point blaming the wicket. Our execution just wasn't good enough. We lost early wickets."

Despite the heavy defeat and falling behind 1-0 in the three-match series, Hridoy insisted that the team's mood remains positive. He believes just one good day can turn things around for them.