West Indies batsmen Shai Hope (2nd-R) and Keemo Paul (R) walk off the field along with Bangladesh cricketers after winning their second ODI at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. — AFP photo
Chief selector Minhajul Abedin on Wednesday urged Bangladeshi players to learn from Caribbean opener Shai Hope’s innings, which helped the visitors win the second match and square-off the series.
Hope exhibited a terrific batting display in the second one-dayer on Tuesday as he struck an unbeaten 146 off 144 balls to lift West Indies from 185-6 to a four-wicket victory.
Amid regular fall of wickets from one end, Hope stood firm in the other end to play a flawless innings mixed with caution and aggression and Bangladesh found no answer to his approach.
‘If a top-order batsman plays like him [Shai Hope], then the team total can easily cross 300-run mark,’ Minhajul told New Age.
‘I think our players needed to play same sort of innings as three of them scored fifties. I hope they will be more careful about that in the next matches,’ he added.
During Bangladesh’s innings, three of their cricketers – Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Sakib al Hasan – completed their fifties but none could make their innings long.
Bangladesh were in full control of the match as they reached 191-3 in the 40th overs Sakib and Mahmudullah, a position from where they were could easily expect anything close to 270-280 runs.
However, Mahmudullah played an overambitious shot to cut short his innings at 30 while Sakib got out soon after he got a life from an Oshane Thomas no-ball.
Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das, who came to bat after sustaining an injury in the second over, also failed down the order to leave the onus on Mehedi Hasan and Mashrafee bin Murtaza.
Bangladesh could add only 26 runs in the final over, only five in their last two overs leaving West Indies a mediocre target to chase, which they achieved by a heroic effort of Hope.
Minhajul blamed lack of application in Bangladesh innings which forced them to remain content with an average total and claimed that batsmen played some careless shots in the middle.
‘There was a lack of application in the middle overs and I think they were careless while making shots. I think if our concentration was high a bit, we could avoid the situation and went on to big total,’ he said.
‘We have scored 15-20 runs short in the innings. It made the most of the difference. In the second half, we didn’t do well in the fielding department. I think we also conceded 15-20 runs while fielding,’ he added.
Off-spinner Mehedi Hasan also believed that Bangladesh needed to finish well in their batting but was hopeful about the Tigers making a strong comeback in the third and final ODI in Sylhet.
‘Yesterday we started really well but the finishing was not good enough,’ Mehedi told reporters in Mirpur.
‘I think we scored 20 runs less. But still I believe that we are in the series and last game is a do-or-die game for us.
‘We won the last match in West Indies to win the series. It is a good opportunity for us in the next match [to make the same result]. I hope that we will make a strong comeback,’ he added.
Source: New Age.
