Bangladesh batter Towhid Hridoy said on Monday that he was prepared to attack from the outset against New Zealand in the opening game of the three-match series in Chattogram, as he felt the team would have been in trouble had he played otherwise.

Bangladesh began cautiously in their chase of 182, with openers Saif Hassan (17 off 16) and Tanzid Hasan Tamim (20 off 25) putting on a watchful 41-run stand before both were dismissed. Captain Litton Das then lifted the tempo with a punchy 21 off 15, before Parvez Hossain Emon's explosive 28 off 14 set the stage for Hridoy and Shamim Hossain to finish the job in style. They did not falter, powering the hosts to their highest successful run chase.

Player of the Match Hridoy scored an unbeaten 51 off 27 balls, while Shamim made 31 not out off just 13 deliveries, including 25 runs off Matthew Fisher in the 17th over.

"Normally my plan depends on what the team demands. In that situation, we needed runs, and at that point we were a bit short of runs," Hridoy told reporters after the match.

"So my plan was to attack because if I couldn't attack, it might have become tough for the team. So I just tried to be as aggressive as possible," he said.

Hridoy also spoke highly of Shamim's power-hitting ability and the value he brings in the lower middle order.

"I really enjoy his batting, to be honest. Because he plays such shots that very few of our batsmen can play. At number six, you need such a player who can hit runs in any direction at any time. Bowlers are also under a lot of pressure from such shots.

"For example, that six he hit, if you notice, we can very rarely hit such sixes. So, of course, I pray that he does even better and stays consistent, Insha'Allah," he said.

Hridoy added that Bangladesh's current group now has enough experience to take responsibility in pressure situations.

"What I feel is that the players that are here are all very experienced now. If you look, every player has played around 30-plus matches. So if we can't win matches like this then it's not a good sign for us. So these are the responsibilities that you have to take on as a batsman," he said.

He stressed that contributions from the lower order would be vital when the top and middle order fail.

"The top-order won't play well all the time, there may be matches where the middle-order won't be good either, in that case the lower-order has to win the game. So we are just trying to develop these things as quickly as possible by ourselves," he said.

Hridoy also said impact mattered more than milestones for players batting at No. 5 and No. 6 in the T20 format.

"Look, I just want to clear one thing: number five and number six are positions where you will get a fifty only once in a while. The day someone from number six hits a fifty, it means our team is on the backfoot, because three or four of our wickets have fallen early. So, in that spot, an impactful innings-like the one Shamim played, feels much bigger to me than a fifty.

"What Shamim and Emon did. So, we need to understand this ourselves, how much an impactful innings matters. Often, we ourselves think about a fifty or a hundred. But I feel that in the T20 format, even 10 runs can be an impactful innings, which is what Shamim and Emon did together to make winning the match even easier," he said.