‘Mistakes were the two dropped catches’

Bangladesh batter Mushfiqur Rahim pointed at the two dropped catches behind the reason for their five-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka in Sharjah yesterday.

"To be honest, there is nothing to blame as no matter how many runs we have scored, there would've been some small mistakes. Our mistakes today (yesterday) were the two dropped catches of Liton despite the fact that he's a very good fielder. It happened in crucial stages of the game as the two lefty batters (Charith Asalanka and Bhanuka Rajapaksa) were batting really well.

"The wicket was good despite we have witnessed a lack of runs on the surface off late. We knew 170 was not a winning score but if we could've utilised the opportunity, we could've turned the game in our favour," Mushfiqur told the media after the game yesterday.

The experienced cricketer finally returned to form after going through a lean patch, scoring an unbeaten 57 off just 37 balls.

"Obviously I wasn't in good touch in the recent five or six games but the way the criticism was going against me, it seemed that I wasn't scoring runs for five-six years. But I'll try to contribute, be it scoring ten or eighty runs for the success of my team in the coming days."

Meanwhile there have been a lot of talks over Mahmudullah Riyad's captaincy after Shakib Al Hasan had one over left of his full quota of overs at the end of game.

"I think it's part of the game as the wicket was good and the two lefty batters were set and we wanted to bring Shakib into the attack in the latter part of the innings. Shakib is a champion bowler and he can take pressure in any situation and I don't think that not bringing Shakib in the bowling [earlier] can be the reason behind our defeat," said Mushfiqur.