Mehidy Hasan Miraz claims that Bangladesh is dismissing their loss to Afghanistan in the ODI series as the result of “two bad days.” The hosts were defeated by 142 runs as their recent ODI form failed them, as Afghanistan went on to amass 331 by shattering a few records to win their maiden series against the hosts.
Mehidy stated that Bangladesh was “not worried” about the series defeat and will make stronger preparations for the two major competitions later in the year, the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup.
“I think we had two bad days. We are not worried about it,”
he said.
“We can plan better for the Asia Cup and World Cup. We play to win every game. We will find out where we are lacking. I said in a press conference a little while ago that losing against Afghanistan won’t make us a bad side. One series can go bad.
“We have a good record in the last three-four years. We finished in the top four in the ICC ODI Super League. I think we can overcome these mistakes from the past two games, and play much better in the Asia Cup and World Cup.”
Mehidy denied that Tamim Iqbal’s withdrawal and subsequent U-turn contributed in any way to the defeat in the second ODI on Saturday.
“Everyone was shocked with Tamim bhai’s decision. Nobody expected it,”
Mehidy said after the loss Chattogram.
“It was a break that day and we had training yesterday. We prepared for this game. But that bad feeling was temporary.”
Mehidy claimed that Bangladesh had significantly lost the match when they were unable to stop the Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who both hit 145 and 100 runs, from compiling a whopping 256 runs in just 36 overs.
“We gave away 30-40 more runs [than we should have],”
he said.
“We weren’t organized enough as a bowling unit. If our top order also made runs and had a partnership going, we could have taken this game deep. It became hard when the top order fell [quickly]”.
Although the visitors were on pace to score even 400, Bangladesh’s bowlers kept them in the game. They managed to take nine wickets in the final 14 overs, limiting Afghanistan to just 75 runs.
That was a substantial deceleration, especially considering that they had been scoring at a rate of more than ten runs per over for the six overs prior to Gurbaz’s dismissal in the 37th over. Mehidy claimed that Bangladesh chose to bowl in order to provide the finest batting conditions possible for their players at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium under the lights.
“We expected the wicket to play better at night,”
he said.
“We batted first in the first game [after losing the toss]. The wicket was slow. It kept low. It improved in the evening, so the captain and coach thought that if [on winning the toss in the second ODI] we bowled well up front and then batted in the second innings, things would be easy for us.”
Bangladesh’s chase was a little sluggish, and they only managed to reach 28 for 3 in the powerplay. Due to an injury, Ebadot Hossain was unable to bat, and the next six wickets all fell in groups of three. And the game was all but gone once they reached 72 for 6 in the 19th over.