Lack of partnership and hesitation in making the shots cost Bangladesh the second Twenty20 international against South Africa, said skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza after a 31-run defeat on Tuesday. Bangladesh collapsed to 138 all out replying to South Africa’s 169-4 in the face of an in experienced South African attack that saw a debutant leg-spinner Eddie Leie and relatively unknown left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso sharing six wickets between them.
Asked to bowl first, the Tigers crawled their way back into the game as their bowlers restricted South Africa to a manageable total despite openers Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers threatening to run amok on course to a 95-run opening stand off just 10 overs.
In reply, Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar put on 46 runs inside six overs to give them a comfortable start before a collapse saw six wickets fell down within next six 12 overs.
Bangladesh could never recover from that situation and apart from only reducing the margin.
‘We were having problem in our decision making as far as our shot selection was concerned,’ Mashrafee told reporters on Tuesday. ‘That’s why we failed,’ he added.
‘They batted well putting 90 runs in 10 overs but we did comeback well. Our batting started well but we could not put up any partnership thereafter.
‘If we had kept the wickets and went into the last five overs with 60 runs to score even then there would have been a chance.
‘But as wickets fell we did not had much options,’ he said.
Mashrafee said that the lack of an explosive batsman down the order played a part in the batsmen’s mind prompting them to go after bowling right from the start of their innings.
‘We don’t have explosive batsmen at down the order who can score 45 to 50 runs in the last five overs,’ said Mashrafee.
‘Other teams can have that luxury but as we don’t have that maybe that played a part in the mind of our batsmen,’ he said.
‘We must accept that we have some lacking in this department.
Mashrafee added that fielding also played a part in differentiating the teams as the visitors kept on pressurising them while the host failed to put any such pressure.
‘They were brilliant in both games as a fielding unit,’ he said.
‘We were not bad in the opening game but today somehow we could not maintain the standard.
‘We had given some overthrows. Actually when you are playing against team like them you need to play on their level.
‘We can improve in our fielding,’ he said.
However, Bangladesh skipper believed that it was not the end of the world and they can still be a force to reckon with in the coming days.
‘The whole nation might feel that we could not perform and it’s normal that we will be criticised.
‘I still believe we can come out of it,’ he said.
-With New Age input
