Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim admitted they need to improve their technique after going down by seven wickets in the second Test against Australia in Chittagong on Thursday.
Bangladesh were bowled out for 157 runs in their second innings in little over two sessions on the fourth day to set up a simple 86-run target for Australia, which they knocked off easily.
With the pitch fast deteriorating, the Tigers had the chance to put Australia under some serious pressure dragging their innings a little longer and adding few more runs on the board.
Australia lost three wickets during their chase in the fourth innings in clear a sign of their vulnerability, but Bangladesh were unable to cash in on it due to their own batting fragility.
Mushfiq insisted that they, as a batting group, still lacked maturity to handle a situation like this which took even a draw out of the equation.
‘In these critical situations, we end up having one really bad session which makes it hard for us,’ he said.
‘I think we lack maturity and there are some technical problems too.
‘This adds to the lack of confidence when you are trying to play defensively. We have room for improvement in terms of our technique,’ he said, urging his team-mates to learn from Australian David Warner.
Warner, regarded as one of the best attacking batsmen in the world, curbed his attacking instinct to play a top innings of 123 runs, when he struck only seven boundaries, the least in any of his 20 Test centuries.
‘Warner was a great example in front of us. He is an aggressive batsman but he probably scored his slowest hundreds this time,’ said Mushfiq, who also lamented their first innings batting.
Bangladesh had the chance to use the pitch first after Mushfiq won the toss and elected to bat, but top-order did no justice to their abilities, falling prey to Lyon’s off-spin en masse.
Half-centuries from Mushfiq and Sabbir Rahman and some rearguard action helped the hosts post 305 runs but it came agonisingly inadequate. Australia put 377 runs in response to take 72-run lead, which made the difference between the two teams finally.
‘I think the first innings had a bigger role to play in this game,’ he said. ‘The spin on the first day wasn’t unplayable or risky. It was flat.
‘We missed out on at least 150 runs in the first innings. Throughout the series, our batting was the real weakness.
‘Nathan Lyon was the only dangerous bowler who made life difficult for our batsmen. Some dismissals were unlucky.
‘But I feel we could have batted another session if we had better application,’ Mushfiq, who top-scored for Bangladesh in both innings.’
-With New Age input
