Mushy finds improvement!
It's nearly over now. Yesterday's defeat against Pakistan not only effectively ended Bangladesh's sordid World Twenty20 campaign -- their last match against Australia will be of only academic interest for both teams -- but brought the Tigers close to closing the chapter on a sorry first three months of 2014.
As has been the case for a while now, there was not much new for captain Mushfiqur Rahim to say in the aftermath of a spanking defeat -- this time one by a mammoth 50 runs. The post-match press conference was marked by the same scramble to unearth the positives from a pile of negatives and trying in vain to explain what has been going wrong.
As to the match, Mushfiqur identified two costly overs when Pakistan were batting as the main reason for losing the match. "I thought the spinners bowled very well -- Shakib, Razzak and Mahmudullah -- but one over from Mashrafe [the 19th costing 24 runs] and one from Zia [the 13th which yielded 22] cost us the match," said Mushfiqur. "When you are giving 20-odd runs in one over, it's very difficult to come back. Ahmed Shehzad also batted really well throughout the innings, which didn't help us. I thought 160, 170 could have been a different ball game."
Surprisingly, Mushfiqur was of the opinion that yesterday's game was an improvement. "In the batting we did not capitalise in the first six overs and also lost a couple of early wickets. But still I thought it was a bit of an improved performance from the last game with the bat. There is still one more game to go, we have to perform well there," Mushfiqur said.
"If only one or two guys are playing well from the 11 it is very difficult. When you are playing against India, Pakistan, West Indies you have to play well as a team and have contributions from everyone."
A muddled mindset has characterised Mushfiqur's recent press utterances, and indeed that of the recent performances of the team. When the sensitive subject of dealing with non-performing individuals like the ever-popular Tamim Iqbal was broached, Mushfiqur seemed to be saying two opposing things at once. "I don't think dropping them is a solution, because I think you have to wait another eight-10 years to get another Mushfiq, Tamim or Shakib," said Mushfiqur before going on to say: "If dropping is a solution, then why not? No player is bigger than the team. If our team management thinks that it would be good if he is dropped then that will happen. But I think those of us who are in the team, if we can play with more responsibility then it will be different."
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