Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain said on Friday that they still have hopes to progress beyond the Super 8 stage as he feels his side will be better placed if they can win their remaining two games. It will be a do-or-die game for Bangladesh against India and Afghanistan if they want to keep their hopes alive of reaching the semifinal after they lost their opening Super 8 fixture to Australia.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-final and at the moment, Australia and India have won their opening games. If Bangladesh do manage to topple India in their next game, we will be heading for an interesting finish.
“The next two games are important and if we can gain a lot from it and if we can win the next two games we will be placed in a better position,” Najmul told reporters following their defeat to Australia. “We will play to win every game.”
Najmul couldn’t exactly pinpoint the reason behind his team’s inability to bat with freedom but admitted that it will get difficult for his bowlers to keep defending par totals. “Why we can’t do it (play freely) is difficult to say because what I feel is that everyone has the ability. In the past they have done it on different occasions so why it is not happening is difficult to say and I don’t have an answer for this question. Everyone is given freedom to play their natural game but somehow it is not happening,” said Najmul.
“As far as playing with freedom is concerned we have already spoken with everyone so that they play with freedom and everyone is trying to play as per their plan in the match but why it is not happening I don’t know personally but if we play like this it is difficult for the bowlers (to defend),” he said.
Najmul defended their tactics of playing cautiously in the beginning but added that they should have scored 160 to 170 runs as he felt it would have been challenging. Bangladesh struggled, at least for the first half of their powerplay, scoring only 8 runs before eventually dragging that score to 39.
“I don’t think so (problem with the wicket) we couldn’t execute with the new ball especially in the power play and we couldn’t finish last five six overs so we lost too many wickets. If we batted well in the end we could have scored probably 160 to 170 runs,” said Najmul.
“I think we planned to play cautiously at the start and we planned to finish the first six overs with wickets in hand and I feel we could complete it as per our planning. It could have been better but I was happy. What I feel is that if I hadn’t gotten out and if I had taken take the game to 16 or 17 overs, in that case we could have reached 160 to 170. What I would say that in the start the wicket was slow and it was not like the ball was coming on to the bat. But what I feel is that there should be a set batsman,” he said.
“At the start what I feel is that it was important to have set batsman and if the set batsman could finish off the game we could have scored 160 or 170 runs,” he said adding that rain also played its part while they were fielding.
“I felt 160 was a good total as the wicket was slow initially but it was easier for them considering due to rain the ball was wet and it was coming on to the bat. That is why they played comfortably against our pace bowlers,” he concluded.
