Bangladesh one-day international captain Tamim Iqbal is disappointed after losing out on 10 points in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League by getting defeated in the third and final ODI of the series against visitors Afghanistan.
Hosts Bangladesh had already secured the series and 20 points after winning the first two games – but conceded a seven-wicket defeat in the third at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the port city Monday.
The defeat denied Bangladesh stretch the lead in the Super League table.
Bangladesh are currently at top of the 13-team table with 100 points and 10 wins from 15 games.
“It is disappointing. I had said ahead of the game [during toss] that this game is the most important. We are still not in a stage where a defeat won’t matter. Every game is important for us at the moment. Every game has points and it's important. I am disappointed for that and for the reason that we could not play our game – the way we had played in the second match of the series,” said Tamim to the media following the game.
Bangladesh’s defeat came yet again due to batting failure against the Afghanistan bowling attack.
They had a debacle in the first game of the series too – but that was recovered by Afif Hossain and Mehedi Hasan Miraz with a record stand to snatch a memorable victory.
But Bangladesh Monday could not dodge a below-par batting performance as they crumbled to just 192 runs inside the 47th over.
Liton Das missed out on his sixth ODI century, and eighth across all formats, after getting dismissed playing a casual shot on 86.
“I think we had started well scoring 100 in first 21 overs and lose just one wicket. But we lost too many wickets in the middle. The surface was tough to bat on in the first 20 overs but it turned good for batting as the game progressed. The wicket was good to bat on in the second innings. We had looked to bag the most points from this series because no one knows what is kept in future,” said Tamim, alluding to the fall of their last nine wickets for just 88 runs.
“We have series against South Africa, Ireland and England – so there are challenges ahead. There is no guarantee if we can win or not,” the left-handed batter added.
