In the immediate aftermath of a humbling defeat at the hands of Afghanistan, the image that immediately comes to mind is of Bangladesh wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim fluffing a simple stumping chance when an increasingly jittery Afghanistan needed 13 to win off 20 deliveries. Had Mushfiqur completed the stumping chance offered by Najibullah Zadran who had skipped down to hit Mosaddek Hossain over the top, Afghanistan would have been eight down, with the win no way a certainty.
The reality, however, is that it was the second match in a row that Bangladesh have underperformed with the bat, and their performance in the second ODI in Mirpur yesterday was much __more abject after having explained the indifferent performance in the first match, which they happened to win, as a product of rustiness.
As easy as it would be to blame Mushfiqur for the loss, and this is certainly not the first time his unreliability behind the stumps has cost Bangladesh, the true damage was done when the last Bangladesh wicket fell in the 50th over of the first innings with the score on 208.
“Regarding batting I think that the top four batsmen all scored __more than 20, one got more than 30, and then they all got out,” said skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who was visibly upset after the defeat. “On today's wicket 240 or 230 would have been a very good score. Unfortunately we got out after getting set. We lacked in that department.”
The question was put forth in the press conference of whether a slow pitch is good for the batsmen's confidence. Mashrafe's reply put the onus on the bowlers as well as the batsmen.
“The pitch for the first match [when Bangladesh were all out for 265] was a flat one,” Mashrafe said. “If you play on flat wickets the batsman's confidence is boosted. But there is no use of these excuses. There is no use blaming anyone in particular. As a team we played poorly in all departments. When [Mohammad] Nabi and Asghar [Stanikzai] was playing in the middle overs, maybe we could have been more attacking or bowled better. If we took wickets, maybe we could have plugged the flow of runs.”
Afghanistan's two leg-spinners -- Rashid Khan and Rahmat Shah -- were big thorns in Bangladesh's side, bowling 18 overs for 65 runs and picking up four wickets. “Actually in the nets or in practice, in the last one-and-a-half months we played leg spinners, but maybe their skill here is better. Maybe they were accurate and that is why we struggled a bit. The wicket too helped the spinners,” the skipper said.
Mashrafe trotted out the positives, singling out Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan, whose fourth wicket made him the first bowler to take 100 ODI wickets at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. But his ire at the underperformance of his team was not long hidden.
“Of course not. I believe no one in the team believes that after the first match,” Mashrafe replied forcefully when asked whether this win was an upset. “I believe in both matches we simply played badly and we were lucky to win the first match, or else we would have lost the series by now. We are lucky to be still fighting for the series.”