England captain Andrew Strauss blamed early evening dew for their Friday\u2019s shock two-wicket defeat against Bangladesh which left their World Cup campaign in tatters.
\n\u2018There was a 20-over period where it was very, very bad,\u2019 Strauss said at the post-match press conference.
\n\u2018Graeme Swann couldn\u2019t grip the ball at all. I think there\u2019s something not quite right if a spinner\u00a0can\u2019t grip the ball in this part of the world, where spin plays such an important role,\u2019 he said.
\n\u2018Graeme was obviously very frustrated, he felt he\u00a0 had a big role to play in the game, and for a period there we had to take him off until later on when he could grip it,\u2019 said Strauss.
\nSwann conceded 42 runs in 10 overs for his two wickets as Bangladesh cruised to 227-8 to win the game in a massive turn around of their fortune after West Indies had bowled them out for 58 runs in the previous game.
\nThe co-hosts looked to be probably heading out of the competition when they slumped to 169-8 chasing 226 to win on an unpredictable wicket with the ball taking reverse-swing.
\nBut Shafiul decided to attack Swann and took 16 runs off his final over which included the only six of the game, as the momentum swung to Bangladesh\u2019s way.
\n\u2018We thought we were in a great position to win it. Ajmal (Shahzad) was \u201creversing\u201d it a little bit, and bowled a really good spell there.
\n\u2018(But) the dew makes reverse-swing a lot harder as well,\u2019 said Strauss, who also partly blamed the early batting collapse for the defeat.
\nBangladesh captain Sakib al Hasan won the toss and gambled with ball which paid off as the visitors were reeling at 53-3 in the 17th over, to the delight of the roaring partisan fans.
\nJonathan Trott (67 off 99 balls) and Eoin Morgan (63 off 72 balls) smashed contrasting half-centuries to rescue England from a dreadful start but at the end of the day their efforts were not enough.
\n\u2018I think losing three wickets early with the bat certainly didn\u2019t help us,\u2019 said Strauss.
\n\u2018It was a pretty slow, low, stodgy wicket \u2013 and we needed wickets in hand to get up to 240 or 250, which would have been a very good score.
\n\u2018Eoin Morgan played exceptionally well, and obviously Jonathan Trott stuck in there.
\n\u2018We felt it was a par score that we could defend it, and we got ourselves in a great position to do that.
\n\u2018But in the end we weren\u2019t able to take those last two wickets, which is very disappointing for us,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Courtesy of New Age<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England captain Andrew Strauss blamed early evening dew for their Friday\u2019s shock two-wicket defeat against Bangladesh which left their World Cup campaign in tatters. \u2018There was a 20-over period where it was very, very bad,\u2019 Strauss said at the post-match press conference. \u2018Graeme Swann couldn\u2019t grip the ball at all. I think there\u2019s something not … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[209,1108,2544,2571,2585,256,489,866,2349,488,1254,1785,867,1468,1109,705,2618,229,1469,1169,1470],"yoast_head":"\n