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Bangladesh national men’s cricket team failed to find a win in their tri-series in New Zealand as they suffered a seven-wicket defeat to Pakistan on Thursday.
Batting first, Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan batted beautifully to help the Tigers put 173-5 on board.
In reply, a lacklustre bowling and fielding performance from them allowed Pakistan to comfortably chase the total down.
This defeat meant Bangladesh failed to win any of their four matches in the series and will go into the World Cup with no wins in the bag in down under.
After the match, Bangladesh skipper Shakib said that this was their best match in the series so far.
“It’s been difficult (on the series). We played our best game today. We could have scored more in the last over with the bat. From the position we were in, we could have scored more but if you gave me 170 at the start of the innings, I’d have taken that. We’re clear on our plans for the World Cup,” he said.
Shakib saying this match was their best performance stemmed from their batting performance as both Shakib and Liton hit fifties to take them to a good total.
Liton, on his birthday, reached his fifty off 31 deliveries and scored 69 off 42 deliveries. Shakib, after scoring 70 in the last match, scored 68 off 42 balls.
Bangladesh had yet another new opening pair on Thursday as Najmul Hossain Shanto was accompanied by Soumya Sarkar at the start of the innings.
Bangladesh brought in several changes against Pakistan as Mosaddek Hossain and Ebadot Hossain were dropped with Hasan Mahmud and Taskin Ahmed returning.
But the new-look bowling lineup proved to be no good as they could not defend 173, with Mohammad Saif Uddin conceding 53 in 3.5 overs.
While the bowling performance was uninspiring and the regular chopping and changing have seemingly made picking the best XI a difficult job, Sriram believes these were means of adapting players to different situations.
“You look at it as an experiment, we look at it as combinations. We will know how each player responds by putting them in different situations. I think we have learned quite a bit. We are very clear about our combinations against different teams. We have to keep all options ready. In our head, we are very clear about how we want to approach it,” the Bangladesh technical consultant said.
Sriram also said that they already knew the team they wanted to field.
“We are very clear about the best team we want to play. I think the captain, myself and the director are on the same page. We have two or three combinations in mind. Given the conditions, we will adopt accordingly,” he said in the post-match press conference.
