New Zealand bowling coach Shane Bond conceded after the Black Caps defeat on Thursday that his side had been outplayed by Bangladesh and praised the Tigers for their performance and for their development since his early encounters with the hosts. ‘I think we’ve been outplayed,’ the former Kiwi paceman said at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium after Bangladesh’s 40-run victory guaranteed them their second straight series victory over New Zealand.
‘I think we’ve played some good cricket in patches, but not for long enough. There’s times when we’ve had Bangladesh under pressure and they’ve responded well and played very well to get out of trouble, and they deserve their two-nil lead.’
Reflecting on what went wrong for the tourists during the first two ODIs, Bond said: ‘I think, with the ball, we’ve been good in patches, but probably not for long enough, and Bangladesh have created a couple of good partnerships.
‘And I think, with the bat, Bangladesh have bowled well up front so we’ve never been able to generate a strike rate. The run rate’s climbed and then we’ve struggled to put partnerships together and wickets have fallen in clumps. So we’ve always been chasing the game with the bat and as a result we’ve lost the games.’
Bond, who was a part of the New Zealand side to host Bangladesh in just the latter’s second year as a Test nation, also spoke glowingly of the Tigers’ progress since that time and offered Sri Lanka as a benchmark for Bangladesh to strive for developmentally.
‘I think they’ve come a long way.’
‘There’s been some players who’ve been around for a long time and experienced cricket in a number of countries, and you see that coming through in the batsmanship and the bowling,’ he added.
‘I think in the long term, you think about the world cups: the one in New Zealand, the next one up in England.
‘I know Bangladesh will always be difficult in their
home conditions; the biggest challenge is how they’ll go when the wickets are a little bit faster and little bouncier, I think, if they can be exposed more to those sorts of wickets.
‘History has seen what Sri Lanka achieved, and there’s no doubt with the passion for cricket and the talent that’s here that they’ll be a force wherever they play in the world.’
Bond also said that the performance of Bangladesh’s pace attack had not come as a surprise to him, despite the reputation of the team and the conditions for nurturing spin.
‘No [it was not a surprise], because I know Mashrafee’s a quality bowler, and experienced. He looks fit – I hadn’t seen him for a while and he’s had some injury trouble, but he looks fit – he’s bowling fast, he’s bowled well.
‘Rubel, he gave us a demonstration in the first game [when he took six wickets] of how to bowl on that wicket in those conditions; I thought he was exceptional.
‘I think those guys have set a tone for the Bangladeshi team up front. We always knew that the spinners were going to present a challenge, but they’ve done a great job supporting the spinners, and as a bowling unit, even though I think we’ve bowled okay, they’ve still bowled better than us.’
Looking ahead towards the final match of the series at Fatullah, Bond cautioned his team against playing defensively to avoid losing.
‘I think sometimes when you get beaten you can sometimes be afraid about losing and forget about still playing to win, so you sort of go into your shell and play defensively. Certainly, from a bowling point of view, that’s not what I want us to do.
‘We’ve done well with the new ball; we’ve started both games pretty well; we just haven’t probably been as good as what we need to in the middle stages and [we’ve been] reasonable at the end, so if we can tidy that up then I think we’ll keep Bangladesh to 220 or below, which I think we’ll need to.
‘But otherwise, I think we’ve still got plenty of talent and ability within the team, we just have to, as a group, play better.’
-With New Age input
