‘First 10 overs cost us the game’
Amid all the disappointments of Bangladesh’s batting performance, it was Mushfiqur Rahim who stood tall for the Tigers against Sri Lanka in the second ODI, scoring an unbeaten 98 after a batting collapse at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday.
Mushfiqur also held the ship together for the Tigers in the first ODI, hitting 67, and once again the wicketkeeper-batsman took responsibility for the innings alongside Mehedi Hasan Miraz in an 84-run seventh-wicket stand.
Bangladesh were at one stage struggling on 117 for six and thanks to Mushfiqur, the Tigers went on to post a competitive 238 for eight. However, it was not enough for the visitors to win the game and they eventually lost the match -- and with it, the series -- by seven wickets.
The experienced cricketer played a gem of an innings in a crisis situation, but could not register his eighth ODI hundred as he took a single off the fifth ball of the last over when he was on 97. According to Mushfiqur, he tried to run two but eventually decided against it.
“It is not in my mind at all, to be honest [missing the century]. All I had in mind when I was batting was to score something so that we can put a fighting total. 238 on the board was a competitive score, I feel. We were 20-30 runs short after losing four early wickets. But the track we had today, I think if we could have started well, we could have end up scoring 270 or 280, and then it would have been a different ball game.
“238 was a challenging score if we could have bowled well, but we couldn’t do that also. We conceded easy boundaries in the first 10 overs. They knew that it would be tougher to score later on that track and we had extra spinners. So, I think the first 10 overs -- both when batting and bowling -- cost us the game,” Mushfiqur told the reporters yesterday.
The wicketkeeper-batsman however was unable to keep wickets as he suffered from cramps after his innings, but Mushfiqur informed that it was nothing serious and was hoping to recover before the next game.
Meanwhile there has been a lot of talk about the poor performance from the batsman, especially the openers – stand-in skipper Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar -- but Mushfiqur backed his teammates and said that it is only a matter of time for them to return to form.
“It is important to adjust to the game situation and the wicket. But this might not work when you are underperforming… it is natural. Tamim and the others are trying but it’s not going their way. I try to speak to teammates always, not only in bad times, but also in good. There is nothing better than helping your teammate, whether it is off the field or when I am batting in the middle,” Mushfiqur said when asked whether he gives his feedback to his struggling team mates.
