ZIM vs BAN | We weren't complacent but lacked partnerships while batting, rues Mahmudullah
Losing skipper Mahmudullah has made it clear that his side wasn't complacent in their second T20I loss against Zimbabwe, though he regretted the lack of partnerships in their chase. However, he added that the team does have a great balance in all the departments and will fight back.
After starting brilliantly in the T20I series opener, Bangladesh fell short by 23 runs in the second game to lose their first-ever T20 game to Zimbabwe. The tourists were below-par in the chase of 167, and both their openers were back in the hut inside the first three overs. After that, Mahedi Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan added 27 runs for the third wicket. But, then again, they lost the key wickets of Shakib, Mahmudullah and Hasan in the space of 13 deliveries and were reduced to 53 for 5, after which they had too big an ask to hunt down the target, which they couldn't with the series getting levelled at 1-1.
Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah ruled out the possibility of complacency from his side's end and reckoned it was simply a case of not executing the plans well enough and not stitching enough partnerships that cost them the game, on Friday, in Harare.
''I don't think we were complacent. We were focused to do well in this match but could not execute our plans and that is the reason we lost the game. I am not disappointed with the batting approach because when you are chasing 160 you have to take risks upfront. Because we lost wickets and we were under pressure. It was important that we had a partnership worth 30 to 50 runs as that would have given us a platform from where we could carry. But unfortunately, we could not have any partnership,'' Mahmudullah told reporters after the match.
In the first T20I, Soumya Sarkar was promoted to open the batting after regular opener Liton Das had got injured, and the move had paid rich dividends as he made a brilliant fifty to propel Bangladesh to a win. In the second game, the team management decided to promote Mahedi Hasan to #3, but it backfired as he made 15 off 19 deliveries. Mahmudullah defended the move and stated that Hasan has already batted higher in the order in domestic cricket, so he wasn't batting out of place.
''In the previous match Liton was our opener but he got injured and we decided to promote Soumya. At that point, we decided to promote Mahedi as he bats up in the order in domestic cricket while the right-hand, left-hand combination will also be helpful. But unfortunately, as a batting unit, we could not express ourselves as we failed to do any partnership. Because when you chase 160 plus runs you need partnerships."
However, despite the loss, the Bangladesh skipper is confident that the team will fight back in the series-decider as they have a good balance in all the departments.
''I think we have flexibility in our batting order. I think our team is well balanced if you see the spin and pace department and the all-around department. I think we fulfill these departments but unfortunately, we could not play well and the result did not come to our favour,'' he concluded.