Mahmudullah points to dot balls
Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad pointed at dot balls played by batsmen as their biggest concern in the shortest form of the game, and they played out 55 of those during a six-wicket defeat against India to start their Nidahas Trophy campaign at the R Premadasa stadium in Colombo yesterday.
The Tigers' skipper", who himself played seven dot balls in Bangladesh's innings of 139 for eight before being dismissed for just one, informed that the Bangladesh think tank must figure out some kind of solution before going into the next match tomorrow against hosts Sri Lanka.
"I think it's obvious we didn't score the way we wanted to, but T20 is a type of format where you have to take calculated risks and look for boundaries as well. I think we have been lacking in that area in the middle overs for the past few matches where we played quite a few dot balls and also threw our wickets away. I think we need to find a way to give less dot balls and score as much as we can. If we can rotate the strike it will release the pressure from batsmen," Mahmudullah said at the post-match press conference yesterday.
There were questions about the over-aggression displayed by Bangladesh's batsmen who were looking for big shots in almost every delivery. The team's senior-most batsmen in Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim were each dismissed in overs that contained two boundaries off their bats.
"At some point we should have been sensible but I won't say we were over-aggressive as it's the nature of T20 cricket. We did give away quite a few dot balls going for big shots and we have to rectify how to play the over when we have already scored few boundaries. If we can do that, I believe our batsmen can continuously score big runs," he added.
Mahmudullah blamed the batsmen and informed that the pitch was a 170-180 run wicket. However, he found some positives from the bowlers and informed that it will be important to have a collective approach and the Tigers are just one win away from overcoming the lean patch.
He reacted with annoyance when asked whether he is giving the positives undue importance. "Not at all, otherwise I would have not said that I am disappointed," he bristled. "We are not able to do things right… that's what I said. If I see the small positives as big then I think I should stop playing cricket. We still have the capability to do a lot better and I believe that. I think we need a game in which we can do everything right to gain the confidence and we are waiting for that momentum and if we get that you will see a different Bangladesh team."