Liton disappointed with batting failure

Sports Desk

Bangladesh T20 captain Liton Das admitted on Saturday that they did not have the batting resources needed to score a big total in the series-deciding third and final T20I at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

Invited to bat first, Bangladesh lost three wickets in the powerplay—Saif Hasan (16 off 11 balls), Tanjid Tamim (6 off 10 balls) and Parvez Hossain Emon (0 off 1 ball)—resulting in the team’s total of 35 for 3 after 4.4 overs.

Then, at 2:36 pm, rain stopped play temporarily, with the hosts at 50 for 3 in 6.4 overs. After a long delay, the match resumed at 4:30 pm after an inspection and due to time constraints, the match was scheduled for 15 overs per team.
However, the break did not change Bangladesh’s fortunes. After losing Liton (26 off 17 balls) in the ninth over, a dramatic collapse occurred. Shamim Hossain (3 off 8 balls), Towhid Hridoy (33 off 24 balls) and Mohammad Saifuddin (0 off 1 ball) were dismissed in the space of just six balls, as the hosts’ total fell from 86 for 4 to 89 for 7.

Rishad Hossain was run out for 5 runs and the rest of the batting line-up quickly folded. Bangladesh lost their last 6 wickets for 16 runs off just 17 balls and were all out for just 102 runs.

The capital was not challenging at all and despite Shariful Islam taking three early wickets, New Zealand easily reached the target. Bevon Jacobs scored an unbeaten 62 off 31 balls, which included five fours and three sixes, helping his team level the series 1-1.

Explaining the adversities they faced due to the rain break, Liton said, “Look, there were two different situations. Situations are out of anyone’s hands—weather is not something you can control. When we came out to bat first, the wicket was behaving a certain way and after losing three wickets early on, we were already under pressure. We needed a pair from there, but then the game went into a break again.”

He added, “So in a 15-over match you are batting in two different conditions. You know your team’s strength is six batsmen, so even if you want to, you can’t score very big. On the other hand, if you look at the opposition, they know their target is small and they will get a chance to play the full 15 overs without any break. And I hope you understand that when the ball is wet, batting becomes a lot easier.”

“So it was very difficult to defend the runs we had scored. In the middle overs you need dot balls and wickets, and when the pitch is good, those opportunities don’t come easily,” he added.

Liton said about the thinking behind using Shariful’s 3 overs at the start of the innings due to the small capital:

“Look, the total wasn’t really big and the wicket was very good. I felt that if we could have taken two more wickets at that time—because Shariful was bowling really well at that time—it would have been possible to put them under pressure.”

He added, “You can’t win a match like this with wickets in hand – you have to go for the wickets. We couldn’t give our bowlers enough runs to put pressure on them with the dot balls. The run rate never went above six, so taking wickets was very important.”

“Cricket is about taking risks. We took our chances, but they didn’t work out – there’s not much you can do about it,” he said.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s stand-in captain Nick Kelly expressed satisfaction with the series result.
“A lot of our top players are not here, they’re busy in the IPL [Indian Premier League] or the PSL [Pakistan Super League]. So it created an opportunity for a lot of alternative players. I think the biggest advantage of touring abroad is learning about different conditions quickly, and we did that throughout the ODI series,” he said.

He added, “I know we lost the ODI series, but there were some great performances from everyone and we learned a lot. We only played two matches in the T20Is, but I felt like we were dominating for a big part of the first match, and then Bangladesh really won the match brilliantly.”

He added, “Finishing the series here, especially the way we bowled—it felt like this unit had been here for three weeks—we learned a lot and it reflected that on the field today, which was very satisfying.”

Earlier, Bangladesh won the first match of the series by six wickets to take a 1-0 lead, while the second match held in Chittagong was abandoned due to rain.