Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad vowed to learn from the mistakes after tasting five-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in their Twenty20 World Cup Super 12 opener.
The Tigers had an iron grip on the match till the 10th overs of the Lankan innings, when they reduced them to 79-4, after putting on a respectable 171- 4. But then they dropped two crucial catches of Charith Asalanka and Bhanuka Rajapakse, who made them pay the price, sharing an 86 off 52 balls for the fifth wicket stand.
Their partnership was key as Sri Lanka reached the winning target with seven balls to spare.
"I thought 171 could be defended. Liton and Naim gave us a very good start. Naim held the innings. Mushfiq played a brilliant innings," Mahmudullah said after the match.
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"We were in the game till the tenth over. But things went wrong for us after that. We will correct that in the next game."
Also Bangladesh played an extra spinner, bringing in Nasum Ahmed in the place of fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, that didn't help their cause. Mahmudullah though tried to defend by saying that the spinners bowled well.
"We watched the IPL games and thought an extra spinner would help. The spinners bowled well but we missed a couple of chances," he said.
He however took the positive out of the disappointing match, saying that their batting performance would boost their confidence in the next matches.
"This game will boost up our batting unit and we are looking forward to the next game," Mahmudullah informed.
During their partnership, Bangladesh made some strategic mistakes and also dropped two vital catches of those two batters. On both occasions, Liton Das was the fielder who put down the catch of Rajapakse for 14 and Asalanka for 63. At the same time, Mahmudullah Riyad's decision to bowl two overs with part time bowlers in the middle overs hurt Bangladesh badly. In those two overs-13th and 14th-bowld by Afif Hossain and Mahmudullah himself, Sri Lanka took 31 runs that effectively titled the match towards them. Whereas Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman had then five overs left. That strategic mistake also cost the game. Bangladesh will take on England in their next match on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
