Overcon-fidence coupled with irresponsible batting led to Bangladesh’s downfall in their crucial World Cup group B match against West Indies, former captains said on Saturday.
Bangladesh made a mess of the game facing a rampant West Indian attack and were skittled out for their lowest ever total of 58 runs to concede a humiliating nine-wicket defeat on Friday, sparking an angry reaction from their fans.
‘It’s a combination of overconfidence and irresponsible batting,’ said former captain Aminul Islam.
‘West Indies did not bowl any great. They just maintained the basics which our players could not,’ Aminul told New Age.
Bangladesh went into the match knowing that they have a very good chance of winning the game being ranked higher than West Indies.
They emerged victorious in both Test and one-day series by a clean margin in their last meeting in West Indies when the home side were badly hit by a players’ boycott in 2009.
The overwhelming success in the Caribbean has given Bangladesh a huge confidence and barring a few exceptions they maintained it until the Word Cup.
The 4-0 series victory against New Zealand and a 3-1 win over Zimbabwe at the end of last year gave the team an impression that they can get away with anything, though batting has always remained a problem for them in the recent times.
They failed to score more than 250 runs in any of the matches in the New Zealand and Zimbabwe series, which left many sceptical about their success in the World Cup despite the series wins.
‘One-day cricket is now getting batting-oriented. To win matches you have to score runs,’ said Aminul.
‘Unfortunately this is what Bangladesh cannot do at the moment. You cannot expect to win matches with the help of the pitch and bowling every day.’
Bangladesh posted their first 250-plus runs in 14 matches when they amassed 283-9 against India in the opening match of this World Cup.
But the score received little plaudits as it came at a time when Bangladesh had virtually no hope to win the game.
The competition ended half-way through the game after India put on 370-4 and hardly any people expected Bangladesh to chase down the total.
Their batting was tested for the first time in the Ireland game but Bangladesh largely failed to impress their critics with a score of 205 runs.
Still they won the game and the credit for the 27-run win went to their bowlers and fans who supported them so passionately that the Irish had very little to do.
‘They knew the crowd would support them anyway. So there was no pressure at all on them,’ said another former captain Khaled Mahmud.
‘I am sure a decent total would have done the job for them against West Indies. They just needed to be responsible. But nobody cared about it,’ he said.
Mahmud added that the team management has a serious role to play now.
‘It’s tough to motivate the side from this situation. But the World Cup is not over and they have got to keep it in their mind,’ he said.
Courtesy of New Age
