No sign of improvement as Tigers succumb to defeat

‘Improvement’ was the keyword from Nurul Hasan Sohan’s words following Bangladesh’s 21-run defeat to Pakistan in their opening match of the tri-series in New Zealand on Friday.

But while the stand-in skipper spoke of that, there were no signs of it on the pitch as Bangladesh failed in all aspects of the game.

Their bowling was ordinary, the fielding was subpar, and the batting continued on its trail of poor displays.

And all of that combined, Bangladesh, despite having a reachable target in sight, fell well short.

“We need to improve a few areas ahead of the next match and the World Cup. The wicket was good. There are some places to improve our bowling despite the bowlers doing well.

“Liton (Das) and (Yasir Ali Chowdhury) Rabbi batted well. We lost quick wickets, where we have room for improvement. If we can do that, we will find the results in the World Cup,” Nurul, who had to lead the side following regular skipper Shakib Al Hasan reached New Zealand only on Thursday due to visa and flight complications, said.

But the image was similar to Bangladesh’s display of mediocrity in the recent past.

Their makeshift opening pair of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Sabbir Rahman has seemingly turned permanent despite all their failures. It was nothing different as the duo played 29 balls combined, but only score 24 chasing a total of 168.

While Liton Das tried and only got out to a great catch, the others never looked comfortable. While Yasir Ali Chowdhury’s 42 from 21 deliveries might seem like a great innings, 20 of it came from the last six deliveries when Bangladesh needed 42.

Liton and Afif’s 50-run stand had given Bangladesh a platform to chase down the total, but then they lost both of them and two more within 15 deliveries, killing off the chase.

“After losing two early wickets, there was a partnership between Afif and Liton. I think the wicket was very good. We lost four wickets within three overs, which made the difference. If we did a bit better in that stage, the story could have been different,” Nurul reflected on the match.

The spinners did well for Bangladesh as the trio of Nasum Ahmed, Mehidy, and Mosaddek Hossain bowled eight overs among them to pick two wickets and gave away just 51 runs.

Taskin Ahmed shined with figures of 2-25, but Mustafizur Rahman continued to display lacklustre form as he remained wicketless and fell short of fifty on the runs column by two.

Bangladesh’s next match is against the hosts on Sunday. And as Nurul said, they will need to improve in several aspects to change their luck.