The look on Tamim Iqbal’s face explained all the dejection Chittagong Vikings are going through at the moment. Halfway to the league, Tamim and his side have experienced several jittery moments on the field and have been close to wining on as many as three occasions.
Fielding has been terrible for the side as they leaked runs in the middle overs which eventually cost them heavily. After another humiliating defeat to Barisal Bulls yesterday, Chittagong’s golden boy Tamim exploded and urged his colleagues to step up and contribute for the franchise.
Disappointing run continues, what went wrong?
I thought we started off beautifully, we can’t expect more from the bowlers, especially in the first six overs. Same old story - catches, run outs. I think that cost us a lot, Mahmudullah was on 25 when we missed an easy run out and [Seekkuge] Prasanna’s was an easy catch too. And that over from Elton [Chigumbura], I think that’s when they took the game away.
What do you have to say about the extras conceded?
I really can’t teach every player how to bowl and in this level, you need to understand what you need to do. And I think that is the main lacking in my team. People need to understand what they need to do. I may be the captain, but I can’t tell them where to ball or what to do because when I bat nobody comes and tells me how to bat.
Chigumbura was very wayward. What was the chat before the 19th over?
I just asked him where he was going to bowl but what happened was the opposite of what I was looking for. But you just can’t blame a bowler for conceding 22 runs, that happens in cricket.
Your thoughts on the way Kamran Akmal was run out?
I thought our body language was good from the start, at least till the 11th over it was good but when we started dropping catches and missing run outs, I thought we were coming down from that point. The way Kamran got out I can only say it was a schoolboy error.
Lack of killer instinct in your team?
To me, we have only one bowler who is a wicket-taker, that’s [Mohammad] Amir. Shafiul [Islam] is bowling well but apart from them I don’t see any wicket-taker in my team. The name on their back does not justify their actions on the field. I am saying something and they are doing something else.
Apart from Amir, Chittagong’s bowling has been below-par, and now the batting?
Look, when we play we get paid a lot of money and when we bring a foreigner they are all professionals and they all want to do well. But somehow performance is a thing you really can’t control but they could have done much better. Like you said, Kamran’s run-out, I have nothing to explain there. Same with [Tillakaratne] Dilshan.
Dilshan, [Chris] Gayle are rated among the top players in Twenty20 if you see the records and if he could have continued his innings, things would have been different. We have lacked in taking responsibilities. They are world-class cricketers and they need to perform well.
Reputation of the foreigners?
Kamran, Dilshan and Chigumbura - they are world-class cricketers. We can buy a player, not the performance and we expect them to perform. We had plans with [Kevon] Cooper as he loves to score through cover. I told Elton to bowl in the square area as it was a long boundary but we were unable to execute.
Any suspicious reason behind the downfall despite having a great start?
Look, it’s not suspicious so don’t point to anything that is not necessary. We played poor cricket including myself, did wrong things that caused the result.
