Bangladesh T20 skipper Mahmudullah speaking during post-match press conference in Nagpur on Sunday. -Collected Bangladesh T20 skipper Mahmudullah confessed that Bangladesh made tough contest throughout T20 series but he blamed yet another batting meltdown that cost them the third match and the series in Nagpur on Sunday. Bangladesh seemed to be taking the game away with Mohamad Naim and Mohammad Mithun involved in substantial partnerships.
Particularly Naim's fearless counter-attacking batting in the halfway of Bangladesh innings gave Rohit Sharma and co a scare before they recovered to post a comprehensive win to secure a 2-1 series win.
Chasing a challenging 175 to clinch maiden T20 series win against India, Tigers lost two wickets within the first three overs before Mohammad Naim counterattacked with a superb 81 off 48 deliveries to bring them back in the hunt. As it turned out, India managed to stave off the threat. A magnificent yorker from Shivam Dube bowled Naim. From there it was all downhill for the Tigers as they lost their last eight wickets inside just 34 runs with Deepak Chahar taking six wickets for seven runs.
Captain Mahmudullah, who also lost his composer under pressure for eight, called on the team to urgently address this tendency to collapse from good positions. "We had our chance when we needed 50 runs off 30 balls, but we lost a few wickets rapidly. It cost us the match," Mahmudullah said.
"If you analyse these three games, we played good cricket. It is hard to get the momentum back once you lose it in T20 cricket. As I have mentioned, we were very close in this game. We lost three or four wickets in six or seven balls. It was the crucial part of this game. We can't make these mistakes again and again." He added. "Our game sense needs to improve and we need to become more consistent mentally," he added. "So as a batting unit, if we can improve then we will have more chances to win.
While Aminul and Naim was the big achievements in the series, the specialists like Mustafizur Rahman, Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das failed to click which is the major concern for team Tigers. Mahmudullah, though, said that Bangladesh would continue to back them, pointing that it is difficult to always maintain consistency in the T20 format.
"It is important to back players in T20Is where it is hard to be consistent. As a team and the management, we should back players who are going through a rough time."
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