Mushfiq can’t hit sixes, says Pandya

This is the third reaction from the characters involved in that final over, after Mahmudullah recently said he felt responsible for the loss. The day after the one-run defeat, Mushfiq apologised for his dismissal in the final stages through a post in his social media page. Pandya, who successfully defended the 11 runs required in the final over, claimed that he “knew” Mushfiq would not be able to hit him for a six even though he had just been struck for two boundaries. “[MS] Dhoni told me to just enjoy the moment and bowl without any pressure,” Pandya told a website. “See, I knew that Mushfiqur Rahim doesn’t have the ability to clobber a six off me. He might hit me for a boundary, which he did, but tonking sixes is beyond him. When he celebrated prematurely after hitting me for a couple of boundaries, I told him that the match is not over and he might muck it all up. “They still needed two runs to win. Both Rahim and Mahmudullah went for glory shots and threw their wickets away. That’s where the inexperience of Bangladeshi cricketers showed. Any sensible cricketer would have sealed the match but they (Bangladeshi cricketers) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.” Pandya said the plan with the final ball was to bowl out of the batsman’s reach. Shuvagata Hom, who was fresh at the crease in the midst of the mayhem, missed a cut shot and failed to collect the single run to tie the game after Mustafizur Rahman was run out by Dhoni. Pandya said the wide delivery was planned just before he had bowled it, an input from his captain. “Both Dhoni and I thought that it made more sense to bowl a back-of-a-length ball rather than a yorker. A tail-ender might edge a yorker and get a boundary but he is unlikely to hit a good length ball. So that was the rationale behind not bowling a yorker,” he said.