Bangladesh’s hope of playing in the Asian Games final were dashed by their poor luck as they were relegated to third-place play-off on the back of a coin-toss in Incheon on Thursday.
Match-referee Venkatpathy Raju flipped the coin in the air to fix up the finalists against Afghanistan after rain and Sri Lankan captain Lahiru Thirimanne successfully called tails to take his team through.
Bangladesh will now play for bronze against Hong Kong today.
Rain had been the talking points since the arrival of the Tigers in South Korea and this is what finally cost them a place in the final which they were eagerly waiting for.
Tigers’ miseries in 2014 started against the Sri Lankan side during their last home series but hardly were they stabbed in this manner that can be compared with South Africa’s elimination from the semi-final of World Cup 1992.
‘It’s disappointing,’ a dejected Bangladesh captain Mashrafee bin Murtaza told reporters at the post-toss briefing. ‘The luck did not favour us as following the rain which was not in our control.’
‘We wanted to play the final but now we have to play for the bronze. From yesterday [Wednesday], we were worried over the forecast and after the downpour, we expected the match would be decided through the super over and we had taken preparation. But it did not happen.’
Rain started to pour at 2:55pm local time with Bangladesh placed at 59-3 in 11 overs after somewhat recovering from a horrendous start which saw them reeling for 3-6 at one stage.
Rain ended in an hour but it left the field to a state, that the game could not be resumed despite the best efforts of the groundsmen. Sri Lanka had to score 38 runs if they were given five overs to bat but even that was not possible.
The next option was a Super Over something which Bangladesh were desperately looking for. However, with the ground remaining unplayable, it was left to coin-toss to decide the fate of the match.
The match referee gave Sri Lankan captain the chance for calling the coin tails as Mashrafee had earlier called the coin at the start of the game.
Mashrafee was not successful as Sri Lanka also won the toss at the start of the game and put Bangladesh in, at the wet and chilly condition.
Bangladesh openers struggled to negotiate the Sri Lankan pacer Dilhara Lokuhettigei, who removed Anamul Haque off his third delivery before uprooting the stumps of one-down Mohammad Mithun in his second over to reduce Bangladesh to 3 for 2 in 2.3 overs.
Sakib al Hasan followed Mithun to be caught out at the backward square-leg by Rambukwella off Isuru Udana leaving the Tigers tottering at 6 for 3 in 3.2 overs.
Tigers pride were restored only after Tamim Iqbal (24) and Sabbir Rahman (27) put 53 runs in the fourth wicket and just they looked be peaking rain came in abundance to spoil their efforts.
‘Surely I was not happy the way we have started but we knew that something like 125 to 135 runs would have been a challenging total in this wicket and our target was to post around 140 runs,’ said Mashrafee.
‘Though we initially lost three wickets but we always maintained the run rate of six per over with nine overs and seven wickets left and we could have accelerate the run wheel,’ he said.
The Bangladesh captain said that the organisers should have kept a reserve day from the knockout stage as this type of tournament holds a great amount of status.
‘If there has been any reserve day, the team could have taken the advantage of it. May be the organisers could not keep the reserve day due to the tight schedule but the thing like toss is unfair for someone,’ said Mashrafee.
-With New Age input
