'We didn't bat well'
There was no need to use a microscope to find out the reason behind the Tigers' eight-wicket defeat against South Africa in the first ODI of the three-match series at Mirpur yesterday. It was crystal clear to everyone as it was to Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who understandably blamed poor batting behind his team's failure to maintain their good run in ODI cricket.
"I would say that we didn't bat well. I didn't see even one ball that swung. We are just not batting well," said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe. He also defended his decision of batting first saying, "We thought it was going to be a good batting track. There was no reason to not take batting."
"Some batsmen got out after getting set in the middle. It's very difficult to explain the reason behind that; only the particular batsman can explain it. But we have to work this out and come out of this scenario. I hope that those who are starting and getting runs will finish their job. We need to turn things around from here. Maybe we can't change much after one day's practice," he continued, adding that the top order batsmen should play long innings.
Despite a 2-0 defeat in the T20I series against the Proteas, Mashrafe was not at all in a dejected mood; but he was altogether a different man yesterday while explaining the reasons behind the defeat in post-match press conference. However once the question was raised about the challenge of leading a team in bad times, he summoned his natural spirit.
"It's always a challenge to captain a side. It becomes challenging when a team gets into a losing rut. But I am still not worried about this. I have faced worse challenges in my life so I am not worried about this challenge as much. Maybe the players are not going through good times now, but they will get it later," said Mashrafe.
Mashrafe felt that it could have been a different ball game had Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan extended their innings a bit more and had his side taken the score between 200 to 220 runs.
He said that South Africa are a really a good team, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't have played better. He was also hopeful of a turnaround from here.
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