Mash rues lack of discipline
Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is closing in on something he has not been familiar with for the last two years. He is only a game away from facing the embarrassment of six straight defeats, three ODIs and as many T20Is, after leading the Tigers to home dominance in the shorter formats of the game. His first bilateral challenge away from home has so far turned bad to worse and after the 47-run defeat against New Zealand at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, the most successful Bangladesh captain apparently gave a resigned shrug of shoulders while attending a post-match briefing.
“We have again created chances but could not grab them. We have one more left and let's see what we can do in that game,” said Mashrafe after the defeat.
When asked how crucial those two overs were where Mahmudullah Riyad and Shakib conceded 43 runs, he said: “I have not expected so many runs from this end. I won't say that was the turning point of the game. This is a ground where 180 is a par score. They have scored 15 runs more which actually have been leaked also in other ways. The two set batsmen were there at that time and they were playing very well.”
He also said that they were not as disciplined as they should have been after claiming those early wickets.
“We have created chances in both bowling and batting. We got three early wickets. We could have been more disciplined after that. Maybe we could have exploited the wind assistance more than their batsmen have done against us,” added the Bangladesh captain.
He was however very happy to see Soumya Sarkar hitting some sort of form.
“I liked the way he batted today. It was as if he was batting like he did when he was in form. I would have loved him to carry on. Had he stayed there for a long period of time we could have won the game. He was batting very well with Sabbir [Rahman]. I think it will help him to regain his confidence. It is also a positive sign for us,” remarked Mashrafe about the young left-handed batsman.
“We were batting positively despite losing early wickets and we have scored 50 runs in the first Powerplay overs. We have created a change when Rumman [Sabbir] and Soumya were batting. But unfortunately they could not finish that”
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