Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque said that they failed to handle the pressure in the second innings of the first test match against South Africa while he further said that it was a ‘crime’ to give away wickets to spinners abroad.
Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque said that they failed to handle the pressure in the second innings of the first test game against Proteas in Durban, as they collapsed to 53 all out.
Both spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer devastated the Bangladesh batting line-up and took all 10 wickets in the second innings.
”I think we failed to handle the pressure after losing three wickets yesterday because I don’t see any other reason,”
Mominul told reporters after the game.
”We played good cricket for four days and played badly only during the last session of yesterday and today.
”It’s not that we played badly for five days and there are lots of positives that we can take, and if we make ourselves mentally strong, we can surely make a comeback,”
he added.
Bangladesh skipper was upset that the side’s batters lost wickets while facing the spinners. He said that it was a ‘crime’ to give away wickets to spinners abroad.
”I think giving away wickets to the spinners abroad is a big crime and I think we should not be giving away wickets. I need to take the blame on my shoulders. There is always an opportunity to score runs against the spinners and it was a complete batting failure.”
Mominul highlighted that Bangladesh’s batting depth is not that strong to pick a combination of five bowlers and six batters.
While Mominul said that he decided to field first as he felt there could be something in it for the pacemen upfront.
”Look, the last Test that we won, we played with seven batsmen. If you see, India, Australia, and New Zealand, their batsmen average more than 50 but that is not the case with us. Our batsmen will have to average 50, (then) we will play with six batsmen and five bowlers.
“I picked fielding because I felt the pace bowlers can extract something from the wicket. We could have added another spinner at the expense of deducting a pace bowler or could have gone for six batsmen and five bowler’s combination. But I don’t think we still are in such a place that we can go for five batsmen-six bowlers combination while playing abroad,”
he said.
Mominul also advised the ICC to bring in neutral umpires on the back of certain umpiring decisions going against them on the fourth day.
He also noted that South Africa perhaps crossed the line to sledging.
”I think sledging is part of the game and it is normal but at times it seems they crossed the line and the umpires did not notice that. We don’t have anything in our hands as far as umpires are concerned but I think ICC should go for neutral umpires as there is hardly any Covid anymore.”