• 2 weeks ago
Asia Cup 2022: Where did Bangladesh go wrong in their loss to Sri Lanka?
Transcript
00:00Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Straight Bad with Gulf News and Mr. Cricket UAE. That
00:13is Ani Sajan. Ani Sajan is not with us today, but we have Sahil Sajan Institute. He is an
00:17equally huge cricket enthusiast. So, we will get his input. We also have Satish, the Sports
00:23Unit of Gulf News with us. And we will discuss Bangladesh and Sri Lanka match and what a
00:28thrilling win for Sri Lanka. Satish, your thoughts on the match?
00:35It's a pretty good, thrilling game. But what has happened is, after seeing both Sri Lanka
00:42and Bangladesh, the way we have seen them over the years, I could see that the standards
00:46have dropped and there are some basic elementary mistakes which both teams are making. But
00:52yes, nevertheless, both teams are in the process of rebuilding and a lot of new players are
00:57coming in. So, in that sense, yes. But again, if they have to do well in the Super 4, then
01:05I'm sure they have to do a lot of work, especially for Sri Lanka, because they have entered the
01:10Super 4, whereas Bangladesh have been on the losing streak. They lost to Zimbabwe. Some
01:18basic mistakes, like today, if you look at, there were four no balls in the T20 game.
01:23So, that's actually, you can't justify that. So, these are some of the basic stuff, which
01:30they have been making, mistakes they have been making. But let's hope they come back
01:33and be the strong team that they were in the past.
01:36Sahil, do you agree with Satish there?
01:38Yeah, absolutely. No balls are not accepted in any form of the game. Yes, in this T20
01:43game, when you get a no ball, it's like a gift, you can say. But this game, I really,
01:48really enjoyed watching. It was one of the fun games to watch as a neutral fan. But yes,
01:54I can also agree on the fact that how the standards have fallen. Bangladesh, what they
01:59have done in Zimbabwe, they lost. They lost both their games to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
02:04And also for Sri Lanka, they were also not playing the best of cricket. Yes, 183, not
02:08an easy target, but they did it with the help of some poor Bangladeshi bowling. But really,
02:13you have to give credit to the tailenders. The way they batted was fearless. When they
02:17needed eight runs in the last over, just he did that. Tailender didn't even think twice.
02:22Fearlessly, he was attacking the spinner. So it was so fun to watch.
02:27I completely agree with you guys there on the part of the extras. Because extras accounted
02:33for 17 runs. See, out of 184, 17 runs is a lot when it's such a close game. I mean,
02:40that actually talks about the dip in standards. You totally, really, really agree there.
02:45And let's look at the team-wise. I mean, Bangladesh made three changes and especially
02:54the move to bring in Abaddus Hussain was very good, I thought. How was he, Sajesh?
03:01Sam, he was quick. He bowled quite well at the initial stages. But I think under pressure,
03:09he lost his cool and he gave away 17 runs in the 19th over. But again, yeah, it again
03:16talks about the experience that comes with playing a lot of matches. But he's a good,
03:24quick bowler who can do a good job for Bangladesh. But again, he's not young
03:32as such. He's 28.
03:37Why ask specifically? Because he was instrumental in Bangladesh's test win in New Zealand.
03:45Correct. Correct. No, but again, it looks like he is more of the classical bowler type
03:52because he has played one day and one T20 game so far. Probably this is his second. So that
04:00lack of experience has showed in the last couple of overs. But again, whichever format you play,
04:06you've got to keep the basics right. So, no ball. I think he was guilty of bowling no ball,
04:12not just even earlier. So, I'm sure the team management and the bowling coaches
04:20will be looking at it and rectifying it over a period of time.
04:24Sahil, coming back to you quickly. Actually, Bangladesh didn't do badly because they batted
04:30very well. We have at least four to five people contributing very well. Mehdi Hassan
04:35contributed 38, Shakib Al-Hassan 24, Afif Hussain is 39, Mahmud Ullah 27 and Mossadegh 24. Five
04:42people contributed in good measure. That is a far improved performance from the previous match.
04:49Absolutely. In the T20 format, you have to expect
04:53everyone to perform, not only openers or your number three or number four. Everyone came up
04:58with the goods. Mossadegh Indians scored 24 of nine balls, which is a huge deal. Unfortunately,
05:03yes, they still couldn't defend that target. But you've got to give credit to them for their
05:07batting style. They all contributed well. But in the end, yes, their bowling let them down. And
05:14again, you see the standards have gone so down that these small, small mistakes
05:18have to be rectified from both teams, be it Bangladesh or be it Sri Lanka.
05:22Okay. We'll keep hopping about the bowling part of Bangladesh. Where exactly did it go
05:30wrong for Bangladesh, Satish? The bowlers part of it?
05:35Shyam, that's what I said. You can't really pin down that. I would say if there is any
05:44particular time when they should have bowled slightly better is when Shanaka came in. And
05:50when Mendes was batting, I think they gave away a lot of freebies at that point of time,
05:55probably bowling to the legs and giving away some free deliveries. I didn't see too many yorkers. I
06:03didn't see pretty close balls. This is a wicket where you can't bowl the slow, short balls where
06:12the ball will nicely sit up and you can hit the ball. So they didn't read the wicket well,
06:18they should have bowled more closely up front, close to almost where the Bumrah style of bowling
06:23yorker lengths. I didn't see too many deliveries Bangladesh bases are bowling. So that's where
06:29they missed the trick. That is, despite Sri Lankan batters giving away their wickets,
06:36and there was another one which I would say where it went wrong was that Mendes had three
06:44chances. One early in the innings where Mushfiqar dropped one. That was a pretty hard chance. But
06:50the second one was another low ball where he was out, but he was called back. And then the third
06:56was, there was a clear edge when he played the hook and they had two reviews and they didn't use
07:02one. And these are some of the things that an international side can't make these mistakes.
07:08Elementary, I wouldn't be there. Another thing I noticed there was also
07:15there are far too many extras given away and see that eases the pressure on the batsmen
07:21because the runs are coming in. So that actually is the kind of deflates the whole thing.
07:27And one of the things which in the lead up to the match, both sides said that
07:32whoever does well in the power play will win the match. But let's look at how they have fared in
07:37the power play. Bangladesh scored 55 for one in six overs and Srilanka 48 for two.
07:46Not too much difference or just an advantage of six, seven runs and one wicket.
07:53Yeah, not too much of a separation. So how did the power play matter, Sahil?
08:00I mean, see now the T20 game has evolved so much. Like the power play matters the most in my eye.
08:05You know how the English players have changed that mentality. Like in T20 here, you go bang,
08:10bang, bang. You know the Roys and the Bastos. You know how they change that mentality. It is now
08:15very important, the power play. And the way England cricket team had set the example,
08:20a lot of teams are trying to follow it. Even India have said it also that they want to follow that
08:24bang, bang approach.
08:26They call it the fearless approach.
08:28Fearless approach, yes. So clearly India still have not been used to that. You can see it in
08:34the first two games. But yes, the power play now for me in this format, in T20,
08:39like in this particular generation, the power play, the six overs, you have to attack.
08:45All right, that apart. Satish, anything you specifically noticed in today's game
08:52before we look at tomorrow's game?
08:56Nothing, Sharma, whatever we have.
08:57Basically, where do these teams go from here? It is curtains for Bangladesh. Sri Lanka,
09:02what do you think of the prospects in the Super Bowl?
09:05The prospects are, I would say, quite bleak. Because the number of numerous errors that they
09:10made, they should actually rectify them. And just imagine, Bangladesh bowled four no-balls
09:18and eight-whites, which means 12 balls, 12 extra runs, plus there are another four free hits. So
09:25despite all those larges, they still managed to win the last over. They need to play a tight
09:32game, which they call it. And then secondly, you need to know, you can't be always aggressive.
09:39Like, yes, a bang-bang game, yes, but you need to play to the situation. You can't go and hit
09:46the ball every ball and keep losing wickets at regular intervals, which puts a big pressure on
09:51the batters who are coming in. And Sri Lanka, though they batted deep and then up to Karnaratne,
09:58they scored some runs. But still, that was more because of a Bangladesh bad bowling than anybody
10:04else. So a good team would pin them down very badly. So they need to be very clear about that.
10:10Okay, that's it. Now, let's look at tomorrow's game, that is Pakistan versus Hong Kong. I'm
10:14not going to ask you who's going to win. That would be a futile exercise. But all in all,
10:22Pakistan looks poised to make the Super Bowl at the expense of Hong Kong. It's a question of
10:26what will be the margin of defeat. Although in a 2020 game, it's foolhardy to make a prediction.
10:35But I think if Hong Kong upsets Pakistan, that would be a real, real shock result.
10:43But let's wait and see what happens tomorrow. And that is it from us today. Thank you very much for
10:49watching us. For all the latest updates and developments, please log on to gulfnews.com
10:54and all our social media channels.

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