Shakib Al Hasan – There were a lot of moments in the match against India that we can say were the defining moments

Bangladesh T20 captain Shakib Al Hasan said that even though they lost the momentum and the conditions were a touch tricky after a spell of downpour, he wouldn’t blame the downpour break for their five-run misfortune to India in a T20 World Cup game played in Adelaide.

Bangladesh T20 captain Shakib Al Hasan said that even though they lost the momentum and the conditions were a touch tricky after a spell of downpour, he wouldn’t blame the downpour break for their five-run misfortune to India in a T20 World Cup game played in Adelaide.

“There are lots of moments in the match that we can say is the defining moment. Of course, the way Litton was batting, his run-out was crucial. We lost momentum after the game was stopped due to rain. But we don’t have rain in our hands, so we have to accept it and needed to play accordingly,”

he said in the presser.

However, Shakib was seen having a conversation (alongside his counterpart Rohit Sharma) with the umpires about the wet conditions.

When asked whether he was fine with the decision of continuing the game, Shakib said that in such conditions, eventually, the decision rests with the umpires. 

He also added that in the common conditions, Bangladesh should have chased down the target. When the ball gets wet, it generally skids through pleasantly onto the bat and also becomes hard for the bowlers to hold.

“Did we have any option? Convince whom? Do I have the ability to convince the umpire? Umpires called both the captains, telling us what would be the target, what the playing rule is, and how many overs we will be playing. Yes, accepted it (umpires’ decision).

“I mean that’s the decision (playing after the rain) that umpires make, we don’t make decisions, you know we are here to play cricket, both teams wanted to play full 20 overs. Unfortunately, rain interrupted but I am happy with the way both the teams played well, we were so close like the 2016 World Cup but weren’t close enough. It was a little slippery, which suits the batting side rather than the bowling side and we should not make that an excuse.

“Most teams will get 52 in the last five overs with eight wickets in hand in these kinds of conditions and we should have chased it down. With the batting line-up we had, I believed that we were capable of doing it. Maybe we panicked a bit in the middle overs, we tried to play too many shots. Nurul and Taskin batted well and brought us back in the game,”

he reckoned.

Shakib expressed that during the rain break, Bangladesh’s ‘dressing room was relaxed’ and they didn’t ponder whether it was fair/unfair to restart the game.

“I think in the dressing room we were pretty relaxed. I think no one talked about that; it is fair or unfair (on restarting the game). We wanted to play, we wanted to win, we tried our best, and everyone tried their best but unfortunately, we came short. We couldn’t do it, that is unfortunate, but we can take a lot of positive things than negative things from this game.”

Shakib highlighted that Litton should have been a piece cautious corresponding to pursuing between the wickets after the resumption. After play resumed, Litton slipped while attempting to pinch a single. 

The next ball, he staggered again while attempting to take the second run and was run out at the non-striker’s end on the back of a direct hit from KL Rahul.

“Yes, it is unfortunate for Litton as he slipped twice and I am not sure whether he was running inside the pitch or through the side of the pitch, where there was grass, whether he was running from that side or not because when he slipped for the first time, he should have been careful. But I am not sure through which area he was running, because I am the next batsman and didn’t understand through which area he was running,”

he said.