Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan believes that a lack of experience in dealing with tense situations cost them the game against India after their heartbreaking defeat against the neighbouring country in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday, reports news agency UNB.
“Panic and lack of experience-- both contributed in our close defeat,” said Shakib after Bangladesh lost the game by five runs.
“We don’t often encounter such sort of moments. We actually haven’t played too many close matches, so the players got panicked a bit. But I think we should’ve won the game.
“Most of the teams will win the game when they need 85 runs from nine overs with all 10 wickets in hand. But unfortunately we couldn’t do that.”
India managed to put up 184-6 and Bangladesh were 66 for no loss after seven overs, thanks to a majestic knock from Liton before the rain arrived.
After the rain stopped, Bangladesh were set a revised target of 151 in 16 overs, which they eventually couldn’t chase down. They were restricted to 145-6 with Liton being out for 60 off 27 balls.
Liton’s unfortunate run out dismissal indeed began the rot as Bangladesh lost six wickets for 40 runs in five overs before Nurul Hasan and Taskin Ahmed took them close to the target but couldn’t finish the job.
“It’s been the story when we play India. We’re almost there but don’t cross the line. It was a great game, the crowd enjoyed it, both teams enjoyed it, in the end someone had to win and someone had to lose,” Shakib said.
The Bangladesh skipper also said that if the current side stays together, they could pull off close games in future.
“Interestingly, all of our World Cup matches against India have been close since 2015. But unfortunately we couldn’t seal the games. But I believe if we can continue the same way and with the same strategy, in future definitely we’ll seal these close matches,” he remarked.
He also heaped praise on Liton, saying that the opener’s innings was not ‘out of the box’, instead he is capable of playing this kind of knocks.
“Liton is batting really well, probably he’s our best batter going around. We thought we could chase this down after that start. For the last two or three years, he has been our best batter. He played well in Test and ODI cricket but in T20 cricket, he has been playing well for the last one year. So his innings is not out of the box rather he is absolutely capable of playing these kinds of knocks.”
Shakib said his target was to get the Indian top-order out as early as possible and therefore he bowled Taskin out inside seven overs.
“Our plan was to get India’s top-order out quickly, that’s why I bowled out Taskin. He’s been our main bowler. Unfortunately he couldn’t get wickets today (Wednesday), he was unlucky but it was a plan to get India’s top order out to dictate the game. We’re positive, we wanted to enjoy this World Cup, hopefully we can continue this.”