Mashrafe points finger at lethargic fielding
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Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza described his teams fielding as lethargic after their 77-run loss to New Zealand in the first ODI in Christchurch. New Zealands innings included three dropped catches but what stood out even more was the Bangladesh fielders lack of intensity in running towards the ball, coupled with misfields throughout the game reports Cricinfo from Christrchurch
New Zealand ran a whopping 27 twos and three threes when they batted, with Tom Latham, who scored his second ODI ton, ensuring that the scoring did not stagnate even if boundaries were hard to come by. The Bangladesh captain reckoned that his team gave away at least 20 extra runs while fielding.
I thought we were lethargic in our fielding, Mashrafe said. It was pretty disappointing. It would have motivated the bowlers had we fielded a little better. They took a lot of twos and threes, which we could have checked. We wanted to restrict them within 280 to 300, and, even if we had lost early wickets, we could have made a game out of that sort of target.
Mashrafe Mortaza said that Mushfiqur Rahim will have a scan on his left hamstring on Tuesday, after 48 hours of observation, before determining the next course of action. Mushfiqur pulled his hamstring while diving to complete a single off Mitchell Santner. He later retired hurt on 42.
Mashrafe said his bowlers also bowled too short, particularly at New Zealands top scorer Latham and Colin Munro, who made 87 off 61 balls. Both batsmen hit four sixes each, most of them pulled towards midwicket and square leg. Latham and Munro took the game away from us. They handled the bowlers really well, and all the credit goes to these two batsmen. But I think we bowled too many short balls to him.
New Zealands short balls were head height, while we could bowl up to chest height which was easier for them to play shots. I think we should have adjusted it earlier, but we still have two matches left.
Despite so many errors in the field and a poor start with the bat, Mashrafe said that he still hoped for a tighter chase, banking on Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman and Mushfiqur Rahim.
The dismissals of Shakib and Sabbir set us back on a good batting track, Mashrafe said. At one stage we needed a T20-type chase, but Mushfiqur got injured. We could have pushed them further in the latter overs.
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand innings:
M Guptill c Soumya b Mustafizur 15
T Latham c Mushfiq b Mushfiqur 137
K Williamson c Mushfiq b Taskin 31
N Broom lbw Shakib 22
J Neesham lbw Shakib 12
C Munro c Taskin b Shakib 87
L Ronchi b Taskin 5
M Santner not out 8
T Southee not out 7
Extras: (b6, lb8, w3) 17
Total (7 wickets, 50 overs) 341
Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-79, 3-134, 4-158,
5-316, 6-323, 7-327.
Did not bat: Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
BOWLING O M R W
Mashrafe 10 0 61 0
Mustafizur 10 0 62 2
Taskin 9 0 70 2
Shakib 10 0 69 3
Soumya 4 0 25 0
Mosaddek 7 0 40 0
Bangladesh innings:
Tamim c Santner b Neesham 38
I Kayes c Ronchi b Southee 16
Soumya c Williamson b Neesham 1
Mamudullah c Ronchi b Neesham 0
Shakib b Ferguson 59
Mushfiq rtd hurt 42
Sabbir c Boult b Ferguson 16
Mossaddek not out 50
Mashrafe c Broom b Santner 14
Taskin c Ronchi b Ferguson 2
Mustafizur b Southee 0
Extras: (b1, lb6, w18, nb1) 26
Total (9 wickets, 44.5 overs) 264
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-48, 3-48, 4-81,
5-144, 6-167, 7-242, 8-252, 9-264.
Bowling O M R W
T Boult 9 0 43 0
T Southee 9.5 2 63 2
Ferguson 9 0 54 3
Neesham 7 1 36 3
Santner 10 0 61 1
Result: New Zealand won by 77 runs
