Home ›› 13 Oct 2022 ›› Sport
Bangladesh national men’s cricket team suffered their third defeat on the trot on Wednesday to ensure that they were not playing the final of the tri-series in New Zealand.
Batting first, the hosts scored 208-4 as Glenn Philips smashed the Bangladesh bowlers around to score 60 runs off 24 deliveries.
In reply, skipper Shakib Al Hasan scored 70 off 44 deliveries, but another disappointing batting display from the others led to Bangladesh ending on 160-7. For Bangladesh, with the T20 World Cup just one match away, worries continue as they have failed to produce batting performances that provide reassurance of their abilities.
Chasing 209, Bangladesh were well in the game as their first 10 overs produced 90 runs, with Shakib well set at the crease.
But the next 10 overs only produced 70 runs as Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Mosaddek Hossain, and Mohammad Saif Uddin combinedly played 31 deliveries to score just 24 runs.
In the second half of their innings, Bangladesh lost wickets regularly, which left skipper Shakib frustrated.
“When you score runs, you feel better but having said that, we played well as the pitch was different to the other one. NZ put on a good total and we were always behind in the game. If we scored 15-20 runs more, it would’ve been better.
“Losing wickets regularly cost us the game. If you look at our last three games, we’ve been losing wickets consistently every few overs, and you don’t get momentum. You are left forced to build innings,” Shakib said after the match.
Bangladesh fielded their third opening pair in the same number of matches as they moved away from their makeshift opener system, with Liton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto opening the batting.
The match also saw Soumya Sarkar and Shoriful Islam play, two players who are not included in the 15-man World Cup squad.
Soumya, batting at no. 3 on his return, scored 23 off 17 deliveries, while Liton scored the same number of runs playing a ball less.
Najmul failed to make use of his second match in a row and took 12 balls to score 11 runs, making Bangladesh fall behind early on in the game.
But another worry for Bangladesh is their death bowling. With Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, and Hasan Mahmud all on the bench on Wednesday, the Tigers conceded 66 in the last five overs, allowing the Blackcaps to go beyond 200.
Bangladesh fast-bowling coach Allan Donald hoped they will win against Pakistan today and go to the World Cup with some confidence.
“Unfortunately, you know, we couldn’t get over the line today but a lot can be taken out of it. We got tomorrow left and hopefully, we can leave New Zealand and go to the World Cup with a bit of confidence with the win tomorrow,” he said.
Donald was also disappointed with the death bowling, “We went for 65 off the last few overs. It’s still something that is punching us in the gut a little bit more. So we can be, we can be a lot more.”
Skipper Shakib believes the team is close to finding their best combination after frequent chopping and changing.
“We are not that far (from our best combination). We have a few areas we need to fix. We know what exactly the World Cup team is, we were just trying to give some guys a game to understand the best combination for the World Cup. We’ll approach tomorrow to try and win the game. That’s why it is an important game tomorrow,” he said.
