'Lack of application disheartening'
It is growing a little too familiar for comfort for Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim. For the last four overseas Test, with the most recent being the 259-run walloping at the hands of Sri Lanka in Galle yesterday, the Bangladesh skipper has had to face the press following a turnaround for the worse on the fifth day.
Even so, yesterday's inexplicable collapse of five wickets for 37 runs in the first hour and an eventual folding for 197 on a good fifth day pitch at the Galle International Cricket Stadium seemed to have unnerved him.
When asked for positives Mushfiqur genuinely struggled for a few seconds to come up with a response to this press conference staple. He said Soumya Sarkar batted well in both innings, the bowlers performed well and could have executed better on a flat pitch, and added that Tamim played well too.
"I think it's difficult to point out the few positives. I think it's important that we play well as a team, but we couldn't do that. And I think we were outplayed in all three departments, and Sri Lanka deserved to win.”
He said the Tigers, with their overnight score of 67 without loss and 98 overs to bat out on the final day in response to Sri Lanka's target of 457, started the day thinking the match could be salvaged.
"Last night, we had some hope after the way Soumya and Tamim batted. That gave us the confidence that at least if we could survive the first session or hour with minimal loss then we could advance to a draw.
"Unfortunately we couldn't do that. We lost our top five batsmen, after that it's very difficult from there to recover. And when you know that you can't win the game it's a bit difficult. And also they know that they just have to bowl the right line and length," was Mushfiqur's post mortem of the debacle.
For his part, Mushfiqur was frank in his appraisal of his side's shortcomings.
"No matter how good the wicket is or how good the batsman is, it takes only one ball if you are not mentally in the right place, don't have the concentration or application," he answered when asked if the shortcoming was just a matter of basics, as he had said during the course of the press conference, or a matter of application from the batsmen as well.
"In that respect I will say that we were a lot behind, especially on such a good wicket on which they played so easily, especially the way Upul Tharanga scored his hundred in the second innings without facing any problems. So from that viewpoint, the application was a source of disappointment as a captain."
A prime example of the lack of concentration or application was displayed by the batsman Mushfiqur had singled out as one of the positives. Soumya Sarkar, unbeaten on 53 off 49 overnight, played the worst possible shot on the first ball of the morning, going to sweep occasional bowler Asela Gunaratne who started the day because he bowled a no-ball in his first ball the previous evening immediately before bad light stopped play. The ball caught the top edge and ballooned over the short leg fielder. Soumya got out the very next ball as an off-cutter bowled his defensive prod, but the previous shot sent the wrong message.
"It was very disheartening the way he started today because in the first ball if you play a sweep it is very difficult. That applies to any batsman, no matter if you are batting on 100 or 200 overnight. So I think there are a lot of lessons there, not just for him but for the whole team. If some get out to a good ball, that is a different case, but if the application of some is a little different it becomes difficult for the team," said Mushfiqur.
"We don't have a batsman whose average is 50 or 50-plus so that if someone gets out he can cover it. All of us average 35 or 40. So we should take more responsibility so that the six batsmen score the bulk of the runs."
He still held out some hope for the second Test, Bangladesh's 100th, starting at the P Sara Oval in Colombo on March 15.
“We lost the opportunity, but there is one more chance and I hope that as a batting and bowling group we can make a comeback."