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Lightning never strikes the same place twice, goes the proverb, but possibly that does not count for the Bangladesh team. The scorecard of the second innings is almost identical to the first innings as the Tigers lost their top four batsmen for just 23 runs against Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
In the first innings, Bangladesh lost half of the side for just 24 runs. Liton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim then put up a record 272-run partnership to salvage the Tigers, and this time too, these two are the two who will resume on day five.
Bangladesh need 107 more runs to avoid an innings defeat, but on top of that, they need to bat for the entire day with the remaining six wickets, which is not an easy job as cracks are opening up on the surface.
Sri Lanka did not lose any wicket till lunch on Wednesday, and Shakib Al Hasan thinks Bangladesh lost control of the game then.
“When they did not lose any wicket till lunch, we realised that things were getting difficult. They were set to take a healthy lead of 150-200 runs. It is difficult to overcome those 200 runs on day five and then put them in to bat again. We were realising that we need to bat for three sessions or even more,” the all-rounder said in the press conference after the day’s play.
Shakib also felt that Bangladesh was one bowler short, especially an off-spinner who could share some workload.
“Nayeem (Hasan) was the backup for (Mehidy Hasan) Miraz, and when he got injured in Chattogram, Mosaddek (Hossain) was called in as a replacement. I think other than these two, we don’t have any ready option. If the other bowlers could have bowled well or we had one more proper bowler in the team, it could have been better for me,” said Shakib after claiming his 19th five-wicket haul in Tests.
Mosaddek bowled only 12 out of 165.1 overs bowled by Bangladesh in this match, whereas Nayeem bowled 53 overs in Chattogram and picked six wickets.
Khaled Ahmed, who replaced injured Taskin Ahmed, was not up to the mark throughout the series and once again, went through a barren period as he is yet to take a wicket in this series. Ebadot Hossain bowled well here and there but was inconsistent.
Shakib feels the pacers could have done better, “I think their pacers have done better than ours. They put the balls in the right areas most of the time.”
Sri Lankans switched to aggressive mode after the tea break and were bowled out almost an hour before stumps. Bangladesh almost repeated what they did in the first innings, and the day ended in a complex situation.
Tamim Iqbal’s wait for 5000 Test runs got prolonged as he was out for a duck for the second time in this match, resulting in his first pair in Tests.
Mahmudul Hasan Joy could have been caught behind in the first over, but the fielders did not hear the faint sound. He was then dropped by substitute player Kamindu Mendis and later got out for 15 runs.
Najmul Hossain Shanto almost performed a kamikaze to run himself out, and Shakib explained why such things happened.
“Run out is not a good sign in Tests. There was confusion between the two (Joy and Shanto), and finally, that resulted in something bad for us. This is very frustrating,” said the all-rounder, who watched the incident from the dressing room.
Regarding the top-order collapse, Shakib said it has become chronic and needs to be addressed.
“I think our batsmen lack the application. Bangladesh have been going through this problem for some time. Even when I am not playing, I have seen the team facing the same problem. It’s happening when I am playing too. We have failed in the second innings many times in the recent past. Possibly players were tired after fielding for so many overs. In such situations, it is difficult for the top-order batsmen to bat,” said Shakib on Wednesday.
