Bangladesh eye to level series

Second T20 with WI today

Bangladesh are determined to leave the agony of eight-wicket thrashing to West Indies in the opener of the three-match T20 International series behind as they eye to level the series by winning the second match today at  Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. The match starts at 5pm. Thereby they want to keep the ambition of a tour sweep alive by winning three format of cricket simultaneously for the first time against any team in their history.

West Indies lived up to their reputation of short format expertise truly in the first match, better to say emphatically , showing Bangladesh how capable they are hitting sixes even in a mishit. They overhauled Bangladesh’s 130 runs target in just 10.5 overs, with Shai Hope at the fore, smashing the third fastest T20 International fifty. Whereas with slightly over 70 strike rate in ODI cricket, which by no means matches the standard of modern cricket, Shai Hope was considered as the slowest batsman in West Indies’ T20 set up. Hope’s batting onslaught gave an indication how destructive other batsmen could be if they somehow get going.

But still Bangladesh are not terrorised, considering that they won a T20 series by 2-1 five months ago against this same team. Bangladesh even lost the first match in that series before winning the last two matches in row to seal the series. Therefore they are taking inspiration from that series.

Bangladesh also could take the inspiration from the stats too. Amongst the top 9 Test team, West Indies is the team against whom their win loss ratio is almost same. The two teams played 10 T20s so far with Bangladesh won four while West Indies five. Bangladesh also won four matches against Sri Lanka but lost seven matches. Their highest number of victory is five in this format, which came against Zimbabwe.

“We are ready to take up the challenge. We are trailing by 1-0 margin and we will try to make a strong comeback tomorrow. We also lost the first game in West Indies but we made a strong come back. In the opening match we made few mistakes and lost early wickets. We are determined not to repeat the mistakes in the second game,” Bangladesh batsman Soumya Sarkar said yesterday.

The biggest mistake that Bangladesh did in the first match that they played too many shots early in the innings against West Indies’ fast bowlers who came up with a barrage of short balls.  

The fiery West Indian fast bowlers used the short ball tricks to precision but Bangladeshi batsmen could leave it well. However the local batsman seemed to play fire with fire.

 ‘’We all know they are world champions. We are not doing too badly. We are trying to play keeping at par with them but probably there were some mistakes. We tried to charge them early. If we handled their pace bowlers properly in the early over, we could have charged them later.

We played slowly in the middle overs as we lost early wickets. We who bats at the top need to utilize the power play well while we need to keep our wickets intact so that we can give the last push in the end,’’ Soumya added.  

West Indies however would leave no stone unturned to seal the series to avoid a tour sweep after their whitewash and thrashing in Test and ODI series. However the tourists is keen to take the momentum in the last two matches as well.

“We would like to take this momentum into the next two games and finish our tour here. That has been the talk in the camp, just to win some games and get better mood going.

This game is like a platform for to take into the two games,” said West Indies fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell who demolished Bangladesh in first match with his career best four for 28.

Bangladesh eye to level series

Second T20 with WI today

Bangladesh are determined to leave the agony of eight-wicket thrashing to West Indies in the opener of the three-match T20 International series behind as they eye to level the series by winning the second match today at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. The match starts at 5pm. Thereby they want to keep the ambition of a tour sweep alive by winning three format of cricket simultaneously for the first time against any team in their history. West Indies lived up to their reputation of short format expertise truly in the first match, better to say emphatically , showing Bangladesh how capable they are hitting sixes even in a mishit. They overhauled Bangladeshs 130 runs target in just 10.5 overs, with Shai Hope at the fore, smashing the third fastest T20 International fifty. Whereas with slightly over 70 strike rate in ODI cricket, which by no means matches the standard of modern cricket, Shai Hope was considered as the slowest batsman in West Indies T20 set up. Hopes batting onslaught gave an indication how destructive other batsmen could be if they somehow get going. But still Bangladesh are not terrorised, considering that they won a T20 series by 2-1 five months ago against this same team. Bangladesh even lost the first match in that series before winning the last two matches in row to seal the series. Therefore they are taking inspiration from that series. Bangladesh also could take the inspiration from the stats too. Amongst the top 9 Test team, West Indies is the team against whom their win loss ratio is almost same. The two teams played 10 T20s so far with Bangladesh won four while West Indies five. Bangladesh also won four matches against Sri Lanka but lost seven matches. Their highest number of victory is five in this format, which came against Zimbabwe. We are ready to take up the challenge. We are trailing by 1-0 margin and we will try to make a strong comeback tomorrow. We also lost the first game in West Indies but we made a strong come back. In the opening match we made few mistakes and lost early wickets. We are determined not to repeat the mistakes in the second game, Bangladesh batsman Soumya Sarkar said yesterday. The biggest mistake that Bangladesh did in the first match that they played too many shots early in the innings against West Indies fast bowlers who came up with a barrage of short balls. The fiery West Indian fast bowlers used the short ball tricks to precision but Bangladeshi batsmen could leave it well. However the local batsman seemed to play fire with fire. We all know they are world champions. We are not doing too badly. We are trying to play keeping at par with them but probably there were some mistakes. We tried to charge them early. If we handled their pace bowlers properly in the early over, we could have charged them later. We played slowly in the middle overs as we lost early wickets. We who bats at the top need to utilize the power play well while we need to keep our wickets intact so that we can give the last push in the end, Soumya added. West Indies however would leave no stone unturned to seal the series to avoid a tour sweep after their whitewash and thrashing in Test and ODI series. However the tourists is keen to take the momentum in the last two matches as well. We would like to take this momentum into the next two games and finish our tour here. That has been the talk in the camp, just to win some games and get better mood going. This game is like a platform for to take into the two games, said West Indies fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell who demolished Bangladesh in first match with his career best four for 28.