We just tried to be too aggressive: McKenzie

Bangladesh white-ball batting consultant Neil McKenzie said that they played the price of being over aggressive against Windies in the opening Twenty20 internationals at Sylhet International Stadium on Monday.

In-form opener Shai Hope struck a quick-fire half-century after pacer Sheldon Cottrell provided career-best 4-28 as West Indies thrashed Bangladesh by eight-wicket in the first Twenty20 international in Sylhet on Monday.

Pacers hunted Bangladeshi batsmen with their short-pitch deliveries with Tamim Iqbal being the first man to have fallen to the trap on five after trying to pull Cottrell in the second over of the innings. Liton Das (six) and Soumya Sarkar (five) followed Tamim soon as they were both also made the victims of short deliveries by Oshane Thomas and Cottrell respectively.

Sakib made his eighth Twenty20 fifty and put up two small partnerships of 25 and 30 respectively with Mahmudullah Riyad (12) and Ariful Haque (17) to lift the side briefly though it was never enough."I don't think it is a concern[ batting failure]. I don't think we learned quick enough. There was extra pace with Cottrell and Thomas opening the innings. We knew they were going to hit the deck hard.

Shakib showed that we could have used the pace a little bit more. I think we just tried to be too aggressive, trying to hit the ball in front of square when we could have used the pace,'' McKenzie told reporters after the game at Sylhet. "It has been a while that we last played a T20. From 50-over to 20-over, there's a huge difference. I think we got a little bit carried away trying to go a little bit too hard.

There was some good range hitting in the nets but I think it all comes down to gameplan and how effective you can be against certain bowlers. You have to hit the ball against guys who have slower balls and change-ups, but when they bowl 138-140s, you have to be a little bit smarter against the opposition,'' he said.

"Team has been on a high in terms of how many series they have won. We have been playing good cricket in every format. So the confidence level is there. We trust the batters out there. It is disappointing that they didn't learn from each other, but we trust our batsmen.

We have had some really good results. In T20s, you can see the advantage of a high scoring rate but we were losing wickets. You have to weigh up the risk and the reward factor. But it wasn't our day. West Indies really showed their desperation,'' he said.

"I think we have some experienced players out there. I think the adaptation of playing on all surfaces is the real key for any international player. I know this is our home surface. There was extra pace and bounce from their bowlers. I don't think we adapted well enough,'' he added.