Nidahas Trophy: Mahmudullah rues death bowling and lack of partnerships for loss vs India

Bangladesh cricket team skipper Mahmudullah rued the failure of the batsmen to string a partnership with Mushfiqur Rahim and also lamented the death bowling in the team’s 17-run loss to India in the Nidahas Trophy tri-series clash at the R Premadasa stadium on Wednesday. (Match report) (Highlights)

The result left Bangladesh needing to win their final league game against Sri Lanka to enter the final of the tournament. Speaking in the post-match press conference, Mahmudullah said, “I personally felt that we should have chased down that score. Tamim gave us a good start but nobody could step up. We should have had another innings of 25-odd, which would have made the difference. We had another batsman scoring 72.”

Rahim’s 72 was the lone bright spot as Bangladesh fell short of India’s 176/3, a total made possible thanks to India skipper Rohit Sharma returning to form with a blazing 89 backed by Suresh Raina’s 30-ball 47. The Bangladesh skipper said the team should have followed the way Rohit Sharma, the Indian skipper, batted for his 89.

“Rohit initially took a bit of time to get settled. He paced his innings, and took on particular bowlers. He batted really well. I think we were playing too fast in the powerplay,” Mahmudullah said.

Bangladesh suffered a jolt in their pursuit of 177 with Washington Sundar taking three wickets and conceding just 22 runs to dent the chase. The Bangladesh skipper praised the youngster’s bowling in the powerplay.

“Washington Sundar showed his potential today. He bowled really well today. He varied his pace and bowled according to the batsman. He didn’t let the batsmen get away. If we could have applied better against him, it would have been a different game for us,” Mahmudullah said.

Death overs poor

Bangladesh rotated their bowlers and restricted India to just 49 runs in the powerplay phase. After Rohit got to his fifty, India notched up 83 runs in the last seven overs to reach a good total. Mahmudullah said the team needed to work on their bowling in the end overs.

“I think we started well with the ball but gave away too many runs in the last few overs. If we had conceded 10 runs fewer, it would have helped us,” Mahmudullah said.

With the next game against Sri Lanka a virtual semi-final, the Bangladesh skipper pondered about changing Rahim’s batting order, considering the rich vein of form the wicketkeeper-batsman is in. “We can. We are thinking about giving him more opportunities. He is in great touch,” the skipper said.