‘One bad match doesn’t mean they can’t play spin’
“It feels good to be back. I have worked at this ground for 15 years. A lot of familiar faces. It feels great to be back. I am excited to be back in Port Elizabeth.”
Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo had a ‘homecoming’ of sorts when he returned to the St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. After failing to play for Eastern Province, Domingo started his career in coaching and made his name as a coach during his time with the Warriors franchise, based in Port Elizabeth. From there, he became the head coach of the South Africa national team and later became head coach of the Tigers.
Bangladesh is going to play the second and final Test of their two-match series against the hosts at the St George’s Park. The team is still reeling from their defeat in the first Test in Durban and the memory of losing all 10 wickets to the Protea spinners in the second innings is fresh in their minds.
But Domingo wants to focus on the positives from the first Test and wants his batters to be more positive against spinners, “One bad match doesn’t mean that a batsman is bad against spin bowling. We have to take the positives from the first innings, fix the errors from the second innings. We want to be a bit more positive and proactive in our batting. We need to have more clarity about our batting. The boys need to understand what their role is and how they can score runs.”
The coach wants his team to forget what happened in Durban and look ahead, “It was actually difficult in Durban, you didn’t know how long you have to bat –five overs, 25 overs, one hour, 10 minutes. Batting wasn’t easy in any innings. But we have to do better, there’s no doubt about that. We want to bounce back from the last match’s disappointment.”
Bangladesh has never before played at St George’s Park. But their coach knows this venue inside and out and he feels that spinners will play a part in the second Test, “The condition here is a bit different than Durban. The wind and weather play a part. Sometimes there is grass on the wicket, as the match progresses the spinners will have a role to play. Historically, spin does play a part at the St. George’s Park.”
But Domingo is shielding Mominul as the captain, “You can say a lot of things later on. The captain and the management have to make the calls. Sometimes they come off, sometimes they don’t. I support the captain 100 per cent. He is trying his best, even in tough situations. We actually played really well on four days. We suffered a big setback in the last few overs of Day 4, and failed on the fifth day. But there were many positives in batting and bowling compared to the previous Test. We have to carry those into the next match.”