Victory cannot paper over Bangladesh's T20 frailties

ELIZABETH BOTCHERBY: A cursory glance at the scorecard indicates a strong and quite dominant performance from Bangladesh. However, not even a valuable two points can hide three glaring weaknesses in their T20 game

On March 13, 2016, Bangladesh defeated Oman by 54 runs in round one of the T20 World Cup. Five years and 221 days later in Al Amerat, they once again defeated Oman, this time by 26 runs to put an end to a five-match T20 World Cup losing streak.

A cursory glance at the scorecard indicates a strong and quite dominant performance from the side ranked sixth in the ICC’s T20I rankings. Shakib Al Hasan put in a player of the match-winning performance with bat and ball, scoring 42 runs off 29 deliveries and taking 3 for 28 with his left-arm spin. Mohammad Naim top-scored with a classy 64 off 50 deliveries, justifying his return to the XI after missing out against Scotland. Mahedi Hasan was miserly with the ball, finishing with figures of 1 for 14, Mustafizur Rahman took 4 for 36, and Oman lost five wickets six wickets for just 22 runs.

And what else would you expect from a side who arrived in Oman with series victories over Australia and New Zealand fresh in the memory?

However, in actual fact, the scorecard flatters another poor performance from Mahmudullah’s side and not even a valuable two points towards Super 12 qualification can paper over the frailties in their T20 game.

^{Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Naim spared Bangladesh's blushes with the bat}

For one, Bangladesh rode their luck, benefitting from not one but three dropped catches inside the opening eight overs. The first – Liton Das dropped on four by Kashyap Prajapati – didn’t pay off, with the opener pinned lbw by Bilal Khan one ball later. However, two missed chances to dismiss Mohammad Naim, first on 18 (dropped by Jatinder Singh) and then 24 (Prajapati), proved decisive. The 22-year-old went on to make a half-century and shared an 80-run third-wicket stand with Shakib which flipped the game on its head. Fielding is an issue in Oman's game (they were equally sloppy against Papua New Guinea) but a better side would not have given Bangladesh so many lifelines.

And then there are the three blindingly obvious weaknesses in their own game.

Number one: powerplay batting. Against Oman, Bangladesh limped to 29 for 2 off the first six overs, losing Liton Das and Mahedi Hasan cheaply, and scoring just three boundaries. Two days earlier against Scotland, it was a similar story – 25 for 2 after six overs, Das and Soumya Sarkar back in the changing room, and a deeply uninspiring two boundaries. In fact, in their past 10 T20 outings, Bangladesh have lost two or more wickets in the powerplay on seven occasions. 

Number two: fielding. Singh could  - and probably should – have been runout for three in the third over but the throw from Shakib was slow and the pick-up from bowler Saifuddin was poor. Two balls later, Prajapati was dropped by a diving Mustafizur Rahman. Yes, it was a tricky chance, but the pacer got two hands to it.

And then, the pièce de resistance, captain Mahmudullah at the start of the sixth over, charging in from extra cover and chesting a routine take to once again give Singh a reprieve. The Oman opener rightly punished them for their shoddiness in the field, powering on to 40 off 33 deliveries and had he not been removed by Shakib in the 13th over, it could have been the Tigers ruing their missed chances.

^{Spinner Mahedi Hasan (right) was once again Bangladesh's standout bowler}

And number three: over-reliance on spin bowling. Looking at the scorecard from Tuesday’s match, you might find this hard to believe. After all, none of Bangladesh’s five bowlers conceded more than 10 an over while their most expensive bowler – Rahman – took 4 for 36 from his four-over allocation. However, after conceding 47 runs in the powerplay, five of which were bowled by seamers, it was the introduction of spin duo Mahedi and Shakib which turned the tables back in Bangladesh’s favour, most notably when they collected the key wickets of Zeeshan Maqsood and Singh.

And once again, a similar scenario had played out in their previous match, with the pair taking five wickets for the loss of just eight runs to trigger Scotland's collapse from 45 for 1 at the start of the eighth over to 53 for 6 midway through the 12th. Of the final six overs in that match, which yielded 63 runs, only one was spin.

After recording figures of 1 for 16, Mohammad Saifuddin is exempt from the criticism of the seam attack but as for Taskin Ahmed and Rahman, both of whom conceded 10-plus runs in a over on more than one occasion against Oman, their cards have been well and truly marked as the bowlers to target in the Bangladesh XI.

In short, if Bangladesh do indeed progress to the Super 12s, they may once again find themselves exiting in round two with zero points to their name unless significant improvements are made in the next few days.

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