Would've been better if it was a double hundred: Mahmudul Joy

Bangladesh opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy said on Thursday that he was disappointed to miss out on his maiden Test double hundred against Ireland in the series opener in Sylhet.

Resuming on 338 for 1, Bangladesh lost both overnight batters early. Joy, on 169 at stumps, added only two runs before falling to Barry McCarthy, who also removed Mominul Haque for 82.

"Yes, definitely a little disappointed, because it would have been my first double hundred if I could have carried on. So I'd say I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't carry it through till the end," Joy told reporters after the second day's play.

"Overall, I'm happy because I've returned to the team after quite some time and I was able to play a big innings for the team. I'm very happy, but as I said earlier, it would have been better if it was a double hundred, so a little disappointed on that front," he said.

"I was playing my natural game. Actually, that ball if I had covered it a bit better, maybe I wouldn't have been out," he added.

"No, not much has changed technically. I used to have a big shuffle across and now it's much shorter - that's the only change I've made," he said. "I didn't really work on anything major here. I'd say I worked more in the Tigers Camp. I got a lot of help from the local coaches there.

"Ashraful bhai (Bangladesh's new batting coach) just came for this series and I hadn't worked much with him before. He just gave a couple of points. Salahuddin sir was there before and he knows me. So no big changes were made. They just told me to play my natural game," he said.

"Actually, the NCL T20 hundred boosted me a lot, because I performed very well there, and then I also played well in the NCL four-day match. So I'm trying to do the same things here - carrying the innings. I won't do anything different," he said.

Bangladesh are on the verge of a comprehensive innings win, with Ireland 86 for 5 at stumps on Thursday, still needing 215 runs just to make the hosts bat again.

After losing two early wickets, skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (100) took charge, adding 79 with Mushfiqur Rahim (23) and 98 with Litton Das (60) to lift Bangladesh to 587 for 8 declared. Ireland trail by 215 runs with five wickets in hand.

"Well, when we had those two early wickets, we had two new batters and we thought we maybe had a small chance of bowling Bangladesh out for a small lead - maybe 150 or so. But the way they came in and played really took the game away from us, and obviously the end result is a 300-plus lead," Humphreys said.

"I think the match is pretty clear. We still want to go about our batting like we would in any game. There are still two days left, and cricket can be a funny game at times, so you never know what might happen if we stick at it tomorrow," he said.

"Credit to the way they played. They didn't give us many chances yesterday or today. The way they rotated the strike made it really difficult for us to build pressure," he added.

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