Bangladesh captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza rued the loss of early wickets while batting on a good surface at Napier against hosts New Zealand as the main factor to the loss in the first One Day International on Wednesday.
The right-arm fast bowler believed a total from 280-300 would have challenged the hosts and not being able to bat the full overs and take advantage of a good batting surface cost his team.
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“I think it could have been 280 or 300 runs, for sure. It would have been a different match. Despite losing our first four wickets quickly, we still scored 232. But we couldn’t manage to play all the overs. It was a very good wicket to bat on, so we missed out,” Mashrafe said at the post-match press conference.
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The New Zealand pacers made early inroads into the Bangladesh batting lineup with their pace, bounce and early swing along with poor shot selections and Mashrafe believes that is where his team lost the match: “We lost too many wickets early. We made some bad decisions with our shots. (Trent) Boult was swinging the ball early on. The first ten overs is key to not lose wickets. I think we lost the game there.”
The 35-year old was pleased with the way the lower order batted, especially Mohammad Mithun (62) and Saifuddin (41) as their partnership took the score from 131/7 to a much respectable 215 before Saifuddin lost his wicket: “We are very disappointed but the good thing is, our late order got their confidence back with runs. Mithun and Saifuddin had a good partnership. If our top-order clicks, we will be okay.”
The next ODI will be in Chirstchurch on Saturday and Mashrafe knows that 280-290 will have to be scored on a good batting wicket and hopes his top order will step up: “I think the lower-order batted well but any team would want their top-order to step up. Obviously, we are looking forward to the next game in Christchurch where it will be another nice wicket to bat on. Hopefully our top order will step up. We also know that we have to score 280-290 on true wickets. We have to have a re-think.”
Openers Tamim Iqbal (5) and Liton Das (1) got out for single digit scores and other senior middle-order batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim (5) and Mahmudullah (13) both failed to steady the ship against the swing and pace of the Kiwi bowlers.
But Mashrafe believes the recent good form shown by the likes of Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim in the BPL T20 tournament will hold the team in good stead and if the batsmen can cope with the early swing from the New Zealand pacers, runs will come easier.
“Our openers have been in good form in the recent past. We have had some hundreds from them as well. But in this part of the world, you have to be careful of the swinging ball. If you can manage to play it out, the ball comes to the bat nicely,” Mashrafe added.
Bangladesh lost their premier all-rounder Shakib al Hasan to a finger injury on the final of the BPL and he may miss the entire tour. That had already put the Tigers at a disadvantage, but Mashrafe felt his team did not perform to their level and needed to improve moving forward.
“It was difficult on a nice batting wicket. We knew that we were without Shakib, but still we have to improve from what we did today,” Mashrafe concluded.
