Mahmudullah not sure about team’s approach in last game
Bangladesh T20I skipper Mahmudullah Riyad regretted the batting debacle in the second T20I against Pakistan as “they could not apply them well” which resulted in their nine-wicket defeat, reports news agency BSS.
The heavy defeat came a day after their five-wicket loss to Pakistan in the first match, which meant they had already lost the three-match series.
Bangladesh could manage only 136-6 despite a 53 ball-65 from Tamim Iqbal. Pakistan, however, gunned down the target in just 16.4 overs thanks to half-centuries from Mohammad Hafeez and skipper Babar Azam.
“It’s really disappointing to lose specially the way we lost. We couldn’t apply ourselves with the bat. The exception was Tamim Iqbal but we couldn’t support him well,” Mahmudullah said in a post-match media briefing.
In what turned out to be Bangladesh’s must-win game in the three-match series, the Tigers yet again won the toss and opted to bat first but the middle order of the team, full of openers, failed to show any unwavering resolve in batting.
Tamim held together the innings and clobbered seven 4’s and one 6 in his gutsy knock before being run-out in the 18th over. This was Tamim’s third run out at a stretch. Afif Hossain made 21 off 20 while captain Mahmudullah Riyad scored 12.
Mahmudullah said they even couldn’t finish off the innings well when there were enough wickets at hands. Bangladesh could score just 48 runs, losing two wickets in the last five overs.
It was, however, a poor return considering the fact that at that time Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah was in the crease and both of them were well set.
While Tamim was expected to make up his slow start at the death by playing some big shots, he was trapped run-out by running between the wickets casually. Mahmudullah in contrast was undone by an express delivery of Haris Rauf.
Their dismissal in a short space effectively routed Bangladesh’s way to put up a reasonable total on the board.
“We didn’t finish off well, which was really disappointing as we were in a position to use the last powerplay well,” Mahmudullh remarked.
The Bangladesh skipper, however, said that he is not sure what the team’s approaches will be in the last game on Monday that turned out to be dead-rubber.
“Not sure yet how we’ll go for the last game, maybe we’ll try to play some reserves, but we need to come hard at them and win the game,” he concluded.