Bangladesh ended another T20 World Cup campaign with nothing much to cheer up. They showed another dismal batting display in their last Super 12 match against Pakistan and lost by a big margin of five wickets on Sunday in Adelaide. While Bangladesh ended the World Cup with only two wins, Pakistan marched to the semifinals as the second team after India from Group 2.
Pakistan had to chase down a target of 128 and they did it with ease. They have lost some important wickets occasionally, but that did not harm their chase. Mohammad Rizwan led the charge by scoring 32 while Mohammad Haris posted 31. For Bangladesh, Nasum Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman and Ebadot Hossain bagged a wicket each. Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first and they posted a moderately below-par total of 127 for 8 wickets with Najmul Hossain Shanto registering a slow 54 off 48 balls.
Shanto and Liton Das opened the innings for the Tigers in this match and Liton hit an early six and indicated to play something big today. But he fell prey to Shaheen Afridi inside the powerplay for 10 off eight balls. It was a short ball from Shaheen and Liton tried to pull it off but ended up giving a regulation catch to Shan Masood.
Bangladesh didn’t lose any more wickets inside the first 10 overs, but in the 11th over, they suffered a double blow when Soumya Sarkar fell while playing a reverse of Shadab Khan, off the next ball, Shakib suffered a controversial lbw. TV replays showed the ball was touching Shakib’s bat before hitting his pads, and the bat was not grounded as well. But the umpire called him out. Shakib left the field in utter disbelief with a golden duck that put Bangladesh into further trouble.
Mosaddek Hossain made only five off 11 balls and Nurul Hasan Sohan also suffered a three-ball duck. Their dismissals made it tough for Bangladesh to go for a big total. But Afif Hossain was unbeaten for 24 off 20 balls. He helped Bangladesh to pass 100-run mark in this match. Eventually, Bangladesh ended up on 127 for eight. For Pakistan, Shaheen bagged four wickets conceding 22 runs while Shadab bagged two.
This match came as a great chance for both Bangladesh and Pakistan to qualify for the semifinals. Pakistan made use of it with both hands, but Bangladesh failed in every way. They failed to bat well, they failed to field and bowl well too.
Shakib blamed the batting failure for this defeat. “At the halfway stage we were 70 for 1. We wanted to get somewhere around 145-150 – that would have been a reasonable total on that pitch,” the Bangladesh captain said after the match.
“We could have done better. But having said that, with the new guys coming in, with the changes, this is the best we could expect. On my own performance – I could have done better. As long as I’m fit and performing, I would love to play,” Shakib added. He also added that it was Bangladesh’s best T20 World Cup performance so far with the wins against the Netherlands and Zimbabwe. Before this, Bangladesh never won two matches in the main draw of the T20 World Cups.
But throughout the event, Bangladeshi batters performed miserably in the middle. If the batters could have done better, Bangladesh might have ended the World Cup with a better outcome.
