Bangladesh concede series

A hapless performance from Bangladesh saw them succumb to an eight-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the second Twenty20 international of the three-match series and also lose the series.

After a fight from the Tigers in the first match, the second match was nothing but a display of poor skills as they could not compete with Pakistan in any department.

Another pathetic display from the batsmen, except for Najmul Hossain Shanto (40) and Afif Hossain (20), saw the Tigers manage only 108-7 in their innings. And with that small total onboard, the bowlers had nothing much to do and missing a couple of easy catches did not help one bit.

Winning the toss, Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah Riyad opted to bat first once again, and like an action replay of the first match, the openers went back within the second over. Saif Hassan fell for a golden duck to a brilliant Shaheen Shah Afridi yorker, and Mohammad Naim fell demonstrated a catching practice for the slip fielder.

But Afif, Bangladesh’s top-scorer from the first match, showed some intent when he hit Afridi for a six. Afridi, losing his cool, threw the ball at Afif in the very next delivery and hit the batsman in the ankle.

Afif recovered, and with Najmul, steadied the ship for Bangladesh with a 46-run stand. But Shadab Khan got the better of him once again as the left-handed batsman tried to reverse lap the leg-spinner, but only managed to loop the ball for wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan to take an easy catch.

Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah Riyad (12) struggled from the moment he came in and was relieved of his trouble by Haris Rauf.

Najmul was dismissed soon when Shadab took a brilliant diving catch off his bowling to reduce Bangladesh to 82-5.

Unlike the first match, the lower-order batsmen failed to make use of their opportunity at the end, leading to Bangladesh finishing on 108.

For Pakistan, Shaheen Shah Afridi was the star of the show as he picked up two wickets for just 15 runs. Shadab Khan also picked up a couple of wickets.

In reply, Bangladesh found some hope when Pakistan skipper Babar Azam (1) dragged a Mustafizur Rahman delivery to get bowled.

But an 85-run stand between Mohammad Rizwan (39) and eventual player of the match Fakhar Zaman (57*) killed that light, though their stand could have been broken earlier.

In the 12th over, Fakhar gave a dolly to Saif at the deep midwicket boundary off leg-spinner Aminul Islam Biplob, but the opening batsman dropped it to deny the leggie his first wicket of the series.

Biplob saw another catch dropped off his bowling in the 16th over when Rizwan got a top edge, but Taskin Ahmed failed to catch the ball.

And Fakhar, along with Haider Ali, finished the game as Pakistan sealed the series with 11 deliveries and eight wickets in hand.

In the post-match presentation ceremony, Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah that the players were training hard but yet missing catches on the field.

“Boys are putting in a lot of effort at training, taking catches, doing all the things right but are missing chances,” he said.

After the match, Bangladesh’s top-scorer Najmul said that he believed that the batsmen of the side could have done better.

“The pitches here at Mirpur always help the spinners at Mirpur. Today, some balls gripped, some did not. But still, I believe we can do better as a batting unit,” he said.

He added, “We have won two home series at home playing good cricket. Then we have lost these two matches. There will be good performances and bad performances, but what is important to me is that our batting is not going well. If we can bat a little better, then I think the match would be more competitive.”

Also, Shanto regretted not taking the opportunity and scoring big. He said, “If I could have prolonged my innings, I think the team would have been at a better place. If I could have scored 70 instead of 40, then the team might have scored over 150 and then it would have been a different ballgame.”