Sakib al Hasan is not the type of cricketer to always blame the wicket, and the former skipper remained his usual self on Monday despite a poor batting performance from Bangladesh that saw them dismissed for a below-par total in the first innings of the first Test against Sri Lanka on Monday. The Tigers were bundled out for 232 runs inside 64 overs on a rock-solidSher-e-Bangla National Stadium pitch that had some bounce but never looked unplayable. Sri Lanka used to bounce to intimidate the Tigers with repeated short-balls that on any other day could have been punished mercilessly by the same batting line-up.
‘I thought the wicket was good when I was batting,’ Sakib said after his 55 lifted the Tigers from a precarious 59-4 to a decent position. Sakib added 86 runs with Mushfiqur Rahim – a partnership that dominated the bowlers without being unmindful of Bangladesh’s situation in the match.
‘If we had batted to our normal ability, we could have scored 375 in the first innings,’ said Sakib, ‘When we started well, it didn’t seem like the batsmen were having problems. Nobody said this in the dressing-room, even after getting out.’
‘We batted quite well in the first eight overs. Batsmen were not missing too many balls or getting beaten.’
Sri Lanka then took control of the game, reaching 60-0 before bad light forced an early close on the opening day. Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva faced little trouble negotiating Bangladesh’s three-pronged pace attack of Rubel Hossain, Robiul Islam and Al-Amin Hossain.
Bangladesh are still 172 runs ahead, but Sakib admitted they were behind in the match, with a Sri Lankan lead in the first innings appearing all but certain.
‘We are behind in the game, mainly because it is hard to get wickets in this surface and scoring runs is becoming easier,’ said Sakib, who blamed the batsmen’s rash shots for their downfall but also praised the Sri Lankan bowlers.
The Bangladeshi openers survived the early moisture before Tamim Iqbal‘s wicket started a mini-collapse, with three wickets falling in three overs to move the scoreboard from 35-0 to 40-3.
‘[The batting collapse] was a combination of them bowling well and mistakes from us. We should have batted better, particularly due to the standards we have reached,’ said Sakib.
The all-rounder was not ready, however, to admit that Bangladesh’s batsmen were vulnerable against the short-ball, a tactic Sri Lanka used successfully. For Sakib, the two wickets that fell to short-balls could have easily been different if the batsmen had better luck.
‘Nasir told me that the ball hit him in his arm,’ Sakib said of Nasir Hossain, who was given out caught behind off a rising delivery from Shaminda Eranga.
‘Mominul was also unlucky as the ball popped up before it reached to him. It was not particularly a short-ball.’
-With New Age input
