Bangladesh skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza was left ruing their bowling in the first six overs, which he said took the match against Pakistan beyond their control at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
Pakistan seized the early momentum to post a mammoth 201-6, putting Bangladesh under huge pressure, something the Tigers could not sustain despite having a batting friendly track.Bangladesh ended up with 146-6 for a 55-run loss to open their campaign in the Super-10 phase of the ICC World Twenty 20 on a wrong foot.
‘We could not take the match from the first six overs,’ Mashrafee said in the post-match press conference. ‘They were successful in their attacking game and we could not execute our plan.
‘We could not take the pressure. Ahmed Shehzad and [Mohammad] Hafeez took a calculative risk. They were successful in doing whatever they wanted. As I said, the match went out of our control in six overs.
‘Still we could have done better. If their score was around 160 to 170 may be the result could have been different. But 200 was always to difficult to chase,’ said Mashrafee.
Pakistan began the match cautiously taking just six runs in the first over. But opener Sharjeel Khan struck Al-Amin Hossain two sixes and a four to take 18 runs in the next over to shift the momentum to their favour.
Though Arafat Sunny bowled Sharjeel coming as a first change bowler, Shehzad (52) and Hafeez (64) batted confidently to put 95 runs in the second wicket stand. It sets up their innings nicely and Shahid Afridi took full advantage to play a typical innings for 49 off just 19-balls.
It took their innings past 200-run mark to give Pakistan a psychological advantage.
Mashrafee hailed Afridi for providing Pakistan the late impetus but reiterated that it was Bangladesh’s bowling in the first six overs that killed their hopes in the match.
Mashrafee said Bangladesh were in contention as long as Sabbir Rahman batted despite an underwhelming starting chasing such a big target.
Mohammad Amir bowled opener Soumya Sarkar in the first over but Sabbir provided a counter punch with some sweetly timed boundaries. Just when Bangladesh started gaining some ground Shahid Afridi struck bowling Sabbir out for 25. Afridi later removed in form Tamim Iqbal to give Bangladesh the decisive blow.
‘We were not upto the mark in both bowling and batting,’ said Mashrafee. ‘Still I would not blame the batsmen because chasing 200 runs was always going to be tough.
‘We were in the game for first four overs. But once Sabbir got dismissed we went into the back foot. If we had 50 to 60 runs by then or got a big partnership later may be we would have expected a different result.’
Mashrafee said Bangladesh need to regroup quickly if they are to expect a positive result in their next game against Australia at Bangalore.
‘We must do well in the next match. The wicket will be even flatter in Bangalore and Australia have got strong line up too. So we have big challenge ahead of us,’ he said.
-With New Age input
