Mehidy Hasan Miraz claims that Bangladesh is dismissing their ODI series loss to Afghanistan as the result of “two bad days.” As their recent ODI form failed them, the hosts were destroyed by 142 runs, and Afghanistan went on to amass 331 by breaking a few records to win their maiden series against the hosts. Mehidy stated that Bangladesh was “not worried” about the series’ defeat and that they would make stronger preparations for the two major competitions later in the year, the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup.
We had two awful days, I believe. We are not concerned,” he stated. “We can organize the World Cup and Asia Cup better. Every game we play, we aim to win. We’ll figure out where we fall short. I recently stated in a news conference that losing to Afghanistan won’t make us a bad team. One series might turn sour.
“Over the past three to four years, we’ve had good results. In the ICC ODI Super League, we placed among the top four teams. I believe we can play much better in the Asia Cup and World Cup if we can learn from our errors from the last two games.
Mehidy denied there was any connection between Tamim Iqbal’s retirement and subsequent U-turn and the defeat in the second ODI on Saturday.
“The choice made by Tamim bhai astonished everyone. Nobody anticipated it,” Mehidy stated following Chattogram’s defeat. We had training the day before, so that day was a rest. We got ready for this match. But that was only a passing emotion.
When Bangladesh couldn’t stop the Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who hit 145 and 100 respectively, from compiling a whopping 256 in 36 overs, Mehidy said that Bangladesh had significantly lost the match.
We lost more runs (than we should have),” he claimed. We lacked sufficient organization as a bowling team. We could have won this game by a large margin if our top order had scored runs as well and established a partnership. As soon as the top order dropped, it became difficult.
However, despite the visitors being on track to score even 400, Bangladesh’s bowlers forced them into the match. They took nine wickets in the final 14 overs, limiting Afghanistan to just 75 runs during that time. When they were scoring at more than ten runs per over in the six overs before Gurbaz’s dismissal in the 37th over, that was a big deceleration. Mehidy claimed that Bangladesh chose to bowl to provide their batsmen with the ideal batting conditions in the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium’s lighting.
He stated, “We anticipated the wicket to play better at night. “In the first game, we batted first [after losing the toss]. The pitch was sluggish. It kept quiet. The captain and coach reasoned that if we bowled well up front after winning the toss in the second ODI and then batted in the second innings, things would be simple for us.
Bangladesh’s chase was a little sluggish, and they only managed to reach 28 for 3 in the powerplay. Due to an injury, Ebadot Hossain was unable to bat, and the next six wickets all fell in groups of three. And the game was all but gone once they reached 72 for 6 in the 19th over.
