South Africa came to Bangladesh with an idea that the hosts would not be easy to beat. But they completed a comprehensive two-match T20 series victory over Bangladesh on Tuesday.
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza is still clueless even after the defeat as to why his side is facing issues against spinners. There are other reasons for him to worry as well. His side has lacked partnerships. The middle order has crumpled in a short span of time in both the matches.
Even the big names have failed to fire and that includes Shakib al-Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal. The young left-arm paceman who became a star during the India series, Mustafizur Rahman, could not made any impact on the visitors.
"It is difficult to explain. Maybe every batsman can speak for themselves individually. I don't know why this happened. Since I don't have the answer, I guess, because wicket fell regularly and the target was big, the batsmen were under pressure. Maybe that's why the batsmen gave away their wickets," Mortaza told the reporters at the post-match press conference.
Bangladesh bowlers pulled things back nicely after South Africa scored 95 runs in the first 10 overs. The visitors were finding it difficult to keep the scoreboard ticking. David Miller and Rilee Rossouw finished things off in style as they added 32 runs in the last two overs and powered the Proteas to a total of 169 runs.
"We came back well enough after [South Africa] made 95 in the first 10 overs. We started well with the bat but we couldn't put together partnerships. I think we had problems with our decision-making. If we think about our strength, we have to score more runs in the first six overs. Other teams have hitters at the death, but we are slightly weak in that area," said the Bangladesh skipper.
"When I say decision-making, I mean shot selection. We could have gone into the last five overs with more batsmen in the shed. We could have got 60-odd in those overs but that didn't quite happen for us," he recalled.
Mushfiqur Rahim is one of their best batsmen in their current line-up and his lack of form is hurting Bangladesh. He did not score a lot of runs against India as well and kept on getting out on loose deliveries. This is a serious point of concern for the Bangladeshi skipper.
"There is nothing to worry. He did as best as he could. We would always want Mushfiqur be in his best form, but it won't happen all the time," Mortaza said.
"It is hard to get going in two T20s. A batsman don't always get time in this format. I am sure he will come back and the day he does, we will win that match.
"We haven't used eight batsmen in the last eight months. We thought they would put up a big total. We had bowling options too. We didn't do too well in the last game with the bat. We wanted more runs with the extra batsmen. Tamim and Soumya started well but it wasn't enough," the Bangladesh captain concluded.
