Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons reacted sharply to the criticism that his captain Sakib al Hasan has been facing for opting to bowl first in Saturday’s opening match against India.
Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli took full advantage of the suicidal decision to hit two centuries that took India to 370-4, ending the contest half-way through the game.
Siddons took swipe on the media people, who questioned Sakib’s wisdom.
‘You are the same people who said we took crazy decisions to bat first when we lost after making 296 runs against India,’ Siddons retorted on Monday.
‘Now you are the same people saying the decision to bowl first was crazy. You can’t have it both ways,’ said Siddons.
Siddons was part of the decision, which came against the backdrop of a poor record of the sides batting first in the day-night games held in the ground.
Out of the 16 day-night matches played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, only three matches were won by the teams batting first.
Dew made it difficult for the bowlers to grip the ball in the second part of the game, which clearly played in the mind of Siddons and Sakib.
‘Teams won 13 games batting second. We can only go by statistics and only go by what happened the night before with the weather,’ said Siddons.
‘You know that Khokon [curator] told me there was dew the night before. Indian coach also saw there was dew the night before and found the ground wet. They would have done the same thing,’ said Siddons.
‘I cannot predict about the weather. All I can do is asking the curator,’ said Siddons.
‘After the game you start criticising, I think is not fair,’ said Siddons.
‘If we wanted to beat India we needed an advantage, maybe we could have got an advantage with the weather,’ said Siddons.
He also pointed out that Ricky Ponting also has the same opinion about this tournament when he said dew could be a big factor in this part of the world.
‘Even Ricky Ponting said team batting second have no chance as dew are expected in this time of the year,’ said Siddons.
However, he admitted that the bowlers bowled badly and the result could have been different if they could restrict India to 320 runs.
‘I admit we bowled badly and that’s the only thing you can critisise. Not the decision to bowl first. If we could restrict them to 320 runs and the dew came in then maybe we had a chance,’ said Siddons.
The Australian is adamant that there will hardly be any change in their decision if they win the toss again against Ireland on February 25.
‘We will bowl first in the next match if we win the toss,’ confirmed Siddons.
