Mirpur, Feb 19: Hit by a Sehwag tornado, Bangladesh could not match up to India’s towering total of 370 in the ICC World Cup 2011 tournament opener. Skipper Shakib Al Hasan nonetheless appreciated his team’s effort especially in the batting department and thanked the crowd for their support.

Excerpts from a post match interview

On the huge target set by the Indians

Yeah, it was too many. I think we bowled too many bad balls, too many boundary balls and that cost us the game. I think Virender Sehwag played a really good innings that took the game away from us.

On whether it was difficult to set a field during the first Powerplay when runs were scored on both sides

I think our fast bowlers didn’t execute their plans. I think they were a bit rusty. But hopefully we will come back extremely strongly. There are so many things to work on.

On the positives his side can take from the game

I think we batted really well, didn’t try to play too many rash shots. We just played cricketing shots. I thought most of the top-order batsmen played good cricketing shots.

On the crowd support

I thought the crowd have been superb today - they have been supporting us throughout this game and hopefully they will continue [providing] this support.