Tigers find little positives in defeat

Bangladesh skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza on Saturday lamented their lack of big partnerships, which cost the side their second consecutive defeat against New Zealand at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
Bangladeshi batsmen, especially their top-order, crumbled once again against the Kiwis, which saw them getting folded for 226 runs – a total that could not test New Zealand batting line-up.
Martin Guptill struck his second successive hundred in the series (118 off 88 balls) as New Zealand raced past Bangladesh below-par score with nearly 14 overs to spare to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
The Tigers, who could never defeat New Zealand on their own soil, were held to 94-6 in the first match and thing hardly improved as the hosts wiped out the top half of Bangladesh’s batting line up for 93 runs this time.
Mohammad Mithun’s successive fifty in the series and a 43-run knock made by Sabbir Rahman spared some of their blushes, helping the side past the 200-run mark, but they could eventually post only a Twenty20 like total.
While in the first match, Mithun and Mohammad Saifuddin put a record 84 runs for the eighth wicket, this time Bangladesh’s best partnership came from Mithun and Sabbir, who shared 75 for the sixth wicket.
‘It was a tough day. The morning weather was good for bowling. Despite losing wickets, Mushy [Mushfiqur Rahim] was set, but if we got a few partnerships up top, it could have been a different match,’ Mashrafee said in the post-match presentation.
‘Mithun has kept scoring runs, that’s a positive, but I think we have to score more heavily at the top. Mustafizur bowled well, but not many other positives from this game. We have to play as a group, in both matches, we got 220-230, but we need to get to 270-280.
‘We need bigger partnerships like 60-70 runs rather than 30-32, so hopefully, we can step up and give our best. There’s still a match left,’ he added.
Bangladesh batsman Sabbir ruled out the excuse of their failure to adjust to the conditions as he claimed that they failed to execute their plans properly in both the matches.
‘It is not that we are not able to adjust to the condition here. Everything is alright but we are not able to execute our plan properly,’ Sabbir told reporters in the press conference after the match.
‘It is not that the wicket is very tough. The first 10 overs were difficult for any team, be it at home or away. We are trying that if we can recover in the first 10 overs and our batsmen can play the last 40 overs and if we can play the last 10 overs nicely then we can fight back,’ he added.
Sabbir, however, was hopeful of avoiding a clean-sweep defeat in the third match at Dunedin on Wednesday.
‘Hopefully, if we can execute our plan properly then we can play good cricket and in the next match we will try to avoid being clean-swept and end the series 2-1,’ he added.
Bangladesh may have to do it in the third match without Mithun and Mushfiqur Rahim as they were reported injured after Saturday’s game and were kept under observation for 48 hours.