Shakib feels sorry for fans after Asia Cup exit
Bangladesh are out of this year’s Asia Cup after suffering a two-wicket defeat in their do-or-die match against Sri Lanka in Dubai on Thursday.
After the match, Bangladesh Twenty20 captain Shakib Al Hasan pointed to the team’s poor bowling at the death overs as the main reason behind their defeat.
Bangladesh posted 183-7 against Sri Lanka, a much improved batting performance compared to their tournament opener against Afghanistan, where they posted 127-7 and then lost the match by seven wickets.
Sri Lanka needed 47 runs in the final five overs with five wickets in hand. Taskin conceded four runs and claimed a wicket in the 16th over to make the equation 43 off 24 balls.
The following over, Mustafizur Rahman gave away nine runs and took a wicket to sustain the pressure. But everything went wrong for Bangladesh in the final two overs.
Debutant Ebadot Hossain, whose first two overs were brilliant, leaked 17 runs in the 19th over and the match permanently swung in Sri Lanka’s favour.
Sri Lanka took the final eight runs in just three deliveries, one of which was a no ball, to complete the chase and qualify for the Super 4 stage.
“Death bowling is something we are looking to improve upon and that has cost us the game. The last two overs they were seven (eight) down and needed to get 17-18 (25) runs and they got there with five (four) balls to spare. We are not bowling well at the death,” Shakib said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Bangladesh played their first match at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium and played against Sri Lanka at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
In both games, thousands of Bangladesh fans were at the stands, cheering their team. But in both matches they went home disappointed.
Shakib said that he felt bad for the Bangladesh supporters and hopes to give something back to them in the future.
“We feel sorry for our fans, everywhere we go we get such superb support. Through our ups and downs they continue supporting us. I hope they will continue supporting us like this,” Shakib said.
Bangladesh’s next marquee T20 assignment will be the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia, starting next month and the Tigers have a lot of work to do before heading down under for the tournament, said Shakib.
“The last six months we haven’t played well, but we have been competitive in these last two games. The World Cup will be a different challenge. We need to work on many areas to do well there.”