Home ›› 28 Oct 2022 ›› Sport
Bangladesh suffered an inexcusable defeat in the 2022 T20 World Cup on Thursday as South Africa hammered them by 104 runs, the Tigers’ heaviest defeat by runs in the format.
The bowling was horrendous, and the batting somehow managed to do worse. The death bowling was the only good thing of the match as it allowed Bangladesh to not chase a bigger total than 205, which would have hardly mattered considering how they batted.
Bowling-wise, Taskin Ahmed could never recover from his second over that went for 21, and ended up conceding 46 runs in three overs. Hasan Mahmud conceded 36, and the only glimpse of light was Mustafizur Rahman as he conceded only 25 when all the other bowlers were sent all around the park by Rilee Rossouw and Quinton de Kock, with the former picking up a ton, his second in the same number of matches.
While the batting got off to a good start courtesy of Soumya Sarkar’s brace of sixes in the first over, things derailed soon enough. The Bangladesh batters could not deal with the pace of Anrich Nortje and only managed to go into triple figures courtesy of some late useless fight from Taskin and Mustafiz.
Even the fielding was subpar. Wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan Sohan conceded five penalty runs for moving while Shakib Al Hasan was bowling, Mahmud dropped Rossouw, and the ground fielding saw runs leaked here and there in a continuous manner.
This defeat brings an end to the epiphany found after their win in the opening game against Netherlands, and it seems as if that win came only because it was the Dutch, an associate nation.
Skipper Shakib admitted that their confidence was indeed hurt.
“I mean, yes (that the confidence has been hurt). Obviously, when you lose by this margin, it is difficult. But we cannot sit back and say, okay, we are done. We have three more matches, three more very important matches to play. And I’m sure everyone will be looking forward to the next game. If we do well in the next game, we’ll go on to the next one,” he said in the post-match press conference.
The Bangladesh skipper also accepted that the lacklustre batting performance chasing a big total might have arrived due to their lack of belief in chasing those totals.
“One reason behind us failing to chase down big totals might be the lack of belief that we can chase down big totals. We don’t chase down big totals in domestic cricket. We lack there. Because other teams often like to chase down 170, 180, or 200. I don’t think we are used to that,” Shakib said.
He also admitted that they could not implement their plans against Rossouw or de Kock as the batters took the game away from Bangladesh by smashing the bowlers all around the park.
“Yeah, we had a certain plan for certain batters. Obviously, we had some plan against Rilee (Rossouw). I think at the start of the innings we didn’t bowl those balls that we wanted to bowl, especially with our fast bowlers. And once a batsman is set in T20 cricket, we know how dangerous a batsman can be. And that’s exactly what he showed today,” Shakib said.
Bangladesh brought one change from the last match as they fielded Mehidy Hasan Miraz instead of Yasir Ali Chowdhury, supposedly for the matchup between Miraz and the Protea left-arm batters. But that did not work as Miraz went for 32 in three overs and remained wicketless.
Shakib though believes that the team selection was correct as South Africa had also brought in a spinner, Tabraiz Shamsi, to replace a pacer, Lungi Ngidi.
“I think, in terms of team selection, looking at the opponent, looking at the condition and pitch, today’s team selection was spot on. South Africa did the same thing also. We cannot worry about that,” Shakib said.
