Mashrafe mystified by poor batting

Bangladesh’s limited overs captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza has no clue why his batsmen are failing to blunt the threat posed by South Africa’s spin attack.

The Proteas completed a clinical Twenty20 International series sweep beating the hosts by 31 runs in the second match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here on Tuesday, reports bdnews24.com.

The hosts’ batsmen were put to the sword by South Africa’s second-string bowling attack in both the matches.

In the first, Aaron <g data-gr-id="29">Phangiso</g> and JP Duminy returned with 3/32 in eight overs between them. On Tuesday, <g data-gr-id="30">Phangiso</g> and debutant <g data-gr-id="32">leg spinner</g> Eddie <g data-gr-id="31">Liei</g> took three wickets each. Although Duminy went wicketless, he conceded only 26 runs in his four overs.

In their last two series’ against India and Pakistan, the batsmen handled some world-class spinners quite well. But they have been completely dominated by a mediocre Proteas spin attack. 

“It is difficult to explain. Maybe every batsman can speak for themselves individually. I don’t know why this happened.” 

“Since I don’t have the answer, I guess, because wickets fell regularly and the target was big, the batsmen were under pressure. Maybe that’s why the batsmen gave away their wickets,” said Mashrafe.

Mashrafe praised the 46-run opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar that saw them off to a decent start in their chase of South Africa’s 169/4. But the failure of others knocked Bangladesh off course. “We started well with the bat but couldn’t put on partnerships. We had problems with our decision-making.”