While New Zealand unsettled Bangladesh with short ball barrage, the Tigers’ strategy was to baffle Kiwis with a sly spin which almost paid dividends before they concede a two-wicket defeat in a tense World Cup game at The Oval on Wednesday.
The slender margin of defeat was a tough pill to swallow for Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortoza as it left him ruing for 20-30 runs more on the board, which could have been earned had the batsmen showed some patience in the crease.
Bangladesh batsmen failed to put up any match defining partnership like the way it happened for the Kiwis, precisely by Taylor and Williamson who forged a 105-run partnership, riding on luck and pluck.
The batsmen looked clueless against New Zealand bowlers express pace and short balls. Unable to leave the short balls properly, they became impatient and tried to deal it with proper plan and eventually dug their own graveyards.
”It was a good wicket. We were 20-30 short with the bat and the outfield was slow. It was the same wicket that we played the last game. We lost too many wickets in the middle overs and couldn’t get any big partnership,” Mashrafe said after the match.
”We needed a set batsmen in the middle overs, but at the end it got tight and if you want to win matches you need to get wickets. We did it very professionally at the end but couldn’t finish it off,” he added.
The captain urged his teammates to learn from the mistakes and execute it in the match against England, which is on June 8 at Cardiff, a lucky venue for Bangladesh.
“We tried hard, but that can happen and the next one is a big match and hopefully we can step up in that,” he said.
”We have to take one game at a time, couldn’t manage today but we will try to be at our best in the next game,” the lanky fast bowler who went wicket-less after giving away 32 runs in five overs against Kiwis remarked.
