Dot balls a problem for Tigers

After the tour of the West Indies and before the Asia Cup, Bangladesh's limited-overs batting coach Neil McKenzie said that he was not too worried about his charges' perceived lack of six-hitting ability because it was made up for by the batsmen's penchant for playing good cricketing shots. He also said that what happened in between the boundaries and how the batsmen took advantage of certain areas interested him more.

Then Bangladesh's stand-in T20I skipper, Mahmudullah Riyad said much the same before the T20 Nidahas Trophy in March. The implication is that Bangladesh's batsmen are skilled in picking the singles and make up for their six-hitting ability by hitting the fours and milking the bowling. However, recent history strongly suggests otherwise.

In recent times, the Tigers also have shown a tendency to lose wickets in clusters, losing three or more top-seven  wickets for less than 15 runs in five of their last seven matches since the beginning of the Asia Cup. Over these games a cluster of dot balls built the pressure and the Tigers often lose wickets to release shots.

In their last five matches, Bangladesh have failed to score off 54.6 per cent of the deliveries they faced. It is revealing of the dot ball's importance to a team's fortunes that only South Africa -- among the six teams ranked higher than Bangladesh in ODI cricket -- have a higher percentage in their last five matches. Top-ranked England -- with just 45.3 per cent dot balls played in the last five matches while making the opposition play 50. 3 per cent -- lead the way. It is a strange statistic for the Proteas and can be seen as an anomaly as they have been known as a team adept at picking singles. Bangladesh, meanwhile, have a history of having a dot-ball problem as Mahmudullah had said after a defeat in the Nidahas Trophy to India.

This problem has been masked well by Bangladesh's excellent bowling as they have managed to bowl an even higher percentage of dot balls against the likes of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. However, when faced with a decidedly superior attack, such as the second-ranked India in the Asia Cup, they were thoroughly outperformed in this statistic -- in the Super Four game Bangladesh played an eye-watering 190 dot balls out of a total of 295 balls played.

While it is true that one Bangladesh batsman or other has stood up -- like Imrul Kayes on Sunday -- to make up for this failing, McKenzie will have to find a solution to the dot-ball problem if Bangladesh are to continue climbing the ladder.