Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad blamed their batting for their perpetual failure in the T20 format in which they lost seven straight matches after being thrashed by eight wickets at the hands of Pakistan yesterday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
In the last 10 matches in just one month, Bangladesh won only two-against Oman and Papua New Guinea in the qualifying round of the Twenty20 World Cup. The latest defeat ensured their series defeat to Pakistan in the three-match T20 Internationals.
“I think in the last five-six months, our bowling unit has been outstanding, both pace and spin department. It’s the batting unit that must delivery,” Mahmudullah Riyad said after the match.
After being restricted to 127-7 in the first match, Bangladesh yet again put on a dismal batting show and limped to 108-7 this in the second game.
It was a way better wicket as suggested by Pakistan batsman Fakhar Zaman who struck a brilliant 51 ball-57 not out to guide the side to an eight-wicket victory with 11 balls to spare.
“It was a better wicket than yesterday’s, not an ideal wicket but better than yesterday. Whenever you play outside your country, it’s important to win games. We’ll try to win the third game as well,” Fakhar, who was adjudged man of the match, said.
Mahmudullah admitted they couldn’t capitalize after the partnership of Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Afif Hossain despite a shaky start.
As the openers were removed in just two overs, leaving Bangladesh at 5-2, Afif and Shanto shared 46-run partnership to get the side back on track. But Bangladesh failed to pace the innings at the death and scored just 23 runs in the last five overs. It was where the match was lost.
“We started well, Afif and Shanto batted well. Me and Shanto were trying to get a partnership but didn’t capitalise in the last few overs,” Mahmudullah said.
He insisted that a batsman should bat till the 15 th over to get them a healthy score in this format.
“I think a team like us needs a set batter till the 15th over, we didn’t do that.”
Bangladesh’s fielding also got worse day by day as they put down two easy chances today with Saif Hassan missing Fakhar Zaman’s catch at deep midwicket when he was on 26 and Taskin shelled the sitter, offered by Mohammad Rizwan on 38 at short fine leg. On both occasions, the poor bowler was legspinner Aminul Islam.
