Bangladesh will have to better control their nerves at the death when they take on Sri Lanka in the second Twenty20 of their two-match series at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong today. The Tigers ran neck-and-neck with their mighty South Asian opponents in the first match only to go down by two runs as the match went down to the last delivery, but the performance would have raised their confidence.
One area of emphasis for the Tigers is managing their nerves, which have cost them dearly in recent matches.
Bangladesh have won just nine out of 33 Twenty20 Internationals but have been close on several occasions, going on to lose from what appeared to be winning positions.
Bangladesh lost by 18 runs against the West Indies in 2012, and in 2013 they lost by 15 runs to New Zealand, 17 runs to Sri Lanka and 15 runs to Zimbabwe.
The death-bowling has been a major worry for Bangladesh as they conceded 75,75, 48 and 55 runs in the final five overs of each of those four matches, not to mention the 45 they conceded against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Bangladesh’s main worry in T20s remains their bowling, both early and late in the innings. Though Mashrafee bin Murtaza bowled reasonably well, his death bowling was not particularly inspiring as he conceded 12 in the final over.
The batting has been good of late, but more work is still needed to maximise run-production the final overs.
Sohag Gazi’s form is also under the microscope as the off-spinner has not bowled well against Sri Lanka, either in the Tests or in the first Twenty20.
Though he is effective as an opening bowler and as a late-order hitter, his inconsistency has been quite evident.
The selectors are expected to make more changes to the team that was fielded in the first game.
-With New Age input
