Bangladesh were clueless in the first Twenty20 (T20) match against South Africa on Sunday. They were handed a heavy defeat by the Proteas, who played professional cricket throughout the game.
This defeat definitely did not make the Bangladeshi skipper Mashrafe Mortaza happy. He went on to regret his side's defeat and felt that they missed out on a chance to beat the visitors.
"We failed to utilise the chance. It would have been close if we were a bit more focused. I hope we will try harder if the next match reaches such state," Mashrafe said at the post-match press conference.
South Africa did not post a big total on the board. They only managed to get 148 runs in their alotted 20 overs, and it was only due to the valiant efforts of their skipper Faf Du Plessis who played till the end of the 20 overs and scored 79 runs.
The Bangladeshi fans would have thought that the Bangla Tigers would get those runs easily as they have a lot of power in their batting lineup. But wickets kept on tumbling right from the first over of their innings. Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar were dismissed cheaply within the first two overs. Later, Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim added 36 runs together and that was the highest partnership for Bangladesh.
After Al Hasan and Rahim were dismissed, a lot were left to do for the rest of the middle order who also succumbed to the pressure and threw their wickets away. Eventually, Bangladesh were bundled out for 96 runs.
"When Sabbir went to the crease, we needed around seven-eight runs per over and nearly nine when Nasir went in. So they wanted to score off bad balls. But they tried to play too many shots. As we have been successful playing aggressively, it is natural to not want to change the style of play.
"But playing according to situation, too, is necessary. I hope the batsmen will be a bit thoughtful in such situation in future," Mashrafe said. He also felt that his side had the match in his grip at a point but Du Plessis and co. added some valauble runs towards the end. "They scored around 10 runs more (than expected). But it could've been chased down by building partnerships."
