Tue, 4, February, 2025, 3:30 am

Batting finally bites Bangladesh

Batting finally bites Bangladesh

Sports Desk:

The first three deliveries of the two innings in Antigua on Friday could probably serve as an apt highlights package for the Bangladesh-Australia game.

In the Bangladesh innings, Tanzid Hasan Tamim tried to play safe and defend all three facing Mitchell Starc and in the third, got an inside edge that rattled his stumps.

 

David Warner, on the second ball of the innings, decided to reverse sweep Mahedi Hasan – the off-spinner who was actually brought into the XI to tackle the all-left Aussie opening pair – and that risk paid off, producing a four and starting the flow of runs that did not stop until the rain played spoilsport.

The difference in approach – Bangladesh being in their shells and Australia taking risks from the get-go – showed not only the gulf between the teams but also how the Tigers’ batting has suffered since the beginning of the tournament, or even before that.

In the four group stage matches, Bangladesh batters were mostly bailed out by their bowlers. They almost bottled the chase against Sri Lanka, lost by four wickets to South Africa, and scored just 106 against Nepal.

However, those problems were masked by the bowling efforts as their four primary bowlers in this edition – Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, and Rishad Hossain – have been in sublime form in the tournament.

On Friday, though, the bowlers could not produce a similar performance as the pitch was offering very little help, with only Rishad picking up a couple but by the time he did, Australia had run away with the chase.

The issue, though, is a very known one. Bangladesh started timidly and Liton Das is probably the biggest example of where it went wrong for them.

He took 10 balls to get off the mark, and even after he did, he struggled as he failed to make clean connections, meaning even though skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto was showing some form, the run rate never kickstarted due to the sluggish nature of Liton’s batting.

After using up 25 deliveries, the opener decided that it was time to attack and took on Adam Zampa – Australia’s best bowler in the tournament so far – after the powerplay was over, meaning more fielders were at the boundary, and an aerial shot could prove deadly. Liton, though, left that for the imagination as he got bowled.

The problem, however, is not with Liton himself. It was the team management’s decision to take time early on as the top-order’s form had been poor throughout the tournament.

‘We had a plan to play carefully by watching the balls at the beginning because we were not getting a good start in the previous matches. So, it was our plan to finish the 6th over keeping wickets in hand which I think we were able to finish according to our plan,’ Bangladesh skipper Shanto said.

Bangladesh had the opportunity to go out and utilise the powerplay fully on a surface that was batting-friendly according to the standards of this World Cup but they decided to bat within themselves, and as the bowlers were not there to bail them out, the batting performance finally bit the Tigers and dented their semi-final dreams.

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