Missed opportunities cost us the game: Mushfiq

Two catches were dropped by Liton Kumar Das while fielding in the deep, which ultimately proved very costly for Bangladesh as they lost an opportunity to start the Super 12 round of the ICC T20 World Cup with a win against Sri Lanka.

Mushfiqur Rahim played a fine knock of 57* runs from 37 balls, his first half-century in the ICC T20 World Cup.

Mushfiq has played in this competition since the first edition of 2007 and his first half-century came in the 29th match, a statistic which hardly shows the class of his batsmanship.

But he could not enjoy the success as the Tigers lost by five wickets, thanks to the buttery fingers of Liton, who dropped Charith Asalanka on 63 and Bhanuka Rajapaksa on 14.

Asalanka ended up playing a knock of unbeaten 80 runs, ensuring Sri Lanka’s win, and Rajapaksa riding on his birthday-luck scored his second T20i half-century, 53 runs from 31 balls where he hit three sixes and an equal number of boundaries.

Mushfiq, coming on to the post-match press conference, said that the lost opportunities cost the game for Bangladesh.

“We have dropped the catches of two already set batsmen, which cost us the game. It’s part of the game. It was a very good batting track today. Both the batsmen were set. They gave a couple of chances which we could not capitalize on. We dropped two crucial chances that cost us the game,” he said on Sunday.

A common tendency of not bringing in a left-arm spinner while left-handers bat is visible in the Bangladesh team’s bowling change process, as Mahmudullah did not bring Shakib Al Hasan or Nasum Ahmed after their good start.

Rather, he bowled off-spin for a couple of overs which cost 21 runs, while Afif Hossain, another off-spinner gave away 15 runs.

Mushfiq defended the strategy as the ground was shorter at one side.

“It is a tactical move by team management. As the ground was shorter at one side, we opted to do so. It’s not like that it’s forbidden to bring in left- armers when left-handers are batting. We judge everything with results. The plan worked, there was an opportunity, but we could not grab that,” said the former captain.

Mushfiq was referring to the dropped catch of Rajapaksa, who took the aerial route against Afif bowling the 13th over.

Rajapaksa took a step across and slogged it behind square-leg, Liton ran in, but it went through his slippery hands, and eventually, the batsman got a boundary where he was supposed to lose his wicket.

Batting has been the problem area for Bangladesh throughout the first round in Oman, but the batsmen stepped up as the venue shifted to Dubai. But ultimately, Bangladesh failed to register another win at the

main stage after beating the West Indies in 2007.

Mushfiq said that during the break, they did understand that 171 runs will not ensure a win on this track, Bangladesh need to bowl well.

“No total is safe in T20. We did not think in the middle of the game that 171 is enough to win but we thought that we can defend the total if we can bowl and field well. We have to grab the opportunities while fielding. Unfortunately, we could not do so. If playing well does not reflect in the results, then it has no value.”