Bangladesh received a huge setback ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup as they tasted defeats in both of the official warm-up games-latest of which came at the hands of Ireland, who sank the Tigers by 33 runs at Sheikh Abu Jayed Stadium Nursery 2 ground in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday.
The Tigers earlier in the first practice game conceded a four-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka. While defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka was not a cause of concern, the way the Irish mauled them, raised a question old question-whether Bangladesh are able to put up good performance in batting-friendly wicket.
Most of Bangladesh victory in the last three series against Zimbabwe, Australia and New Zealand came in slow and low wicket. But what is terrifying for them is that the World Cup wicket will be largely batting friendly.
However after opting to bat first, Ireland posted a huge 177-3 in 20 overs with Gareth Delany tearing apart Bangladesh bowlers to blast an unbeaten 88 off 50. Bangladesh who were reduced to 90-6 in 13.1 overs finally put up 144 before being bowled out in 20 overs.
Delany treated Bangladesh bowlers in utter disdain after Irish openers Paul Sterling and captain Andy Balbirnie gave the side a moderate start.
Paul Sterling made 22 off 16 before Nasum broke through but Delany then made sure no Bangladeshi bowlers, including the celebrated fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman would be spared.
His 50 ball-88 runs knock included three and eight towering sixes, which inflicted a mental breakdown for the Bangladeshi bowlers. No other Irish batsmen however could score as faster as Delany. Balbrinie was out on 25 off 22 while Harry Tector who accompanied Delany till the end, made run-a-ball-23.
Taskin Ahmed was the only bowlers to avoid the blushes, largely due to his ability to generate pace as he took two wickets for 26 runs in four overs. Since wicket didn't assist Mustafizur's cutter and slower, he looked like a bowler out-of-sort and jaded as he gave away 40 runs in four overs.
Mustafizur who played the IPL was rested in the first practice game. Regular skipper Mahmudullah was also left out to recover fully from his back pain.
Liton Das who led the side in absence of Mahmudullah failed to give the side a fluent start in pursuit of huge chase.
He was out on 3 while his opening partner Naim Sheikh could make only 1. Senior batsman Mushfiqur Rahim also failed to make runs for the consecutive second match, being out on 4. But Soumya Sarkar and Nurul Hasan Sohan kept up their consistency, which is the only shining spot for Bangladesh ahead of their World Cup campaign. Sarkar hammered 37 off 30 and Sohan played a fluent 24 ball-38 runs knock.
But their effort was not enough to gun down such a big total. Bangladesh will start their World Cup, taking on Scotland on October 17. They will then face off co-host Oman on October 19 and Papua New Guinea on October 21. If they can keep them in top two amongst those four teams, they will move to the Super 12s.
Despite their below par performance in the two official warm-up games, it is still highly likely that they would move to the Super 12s but the question remains whether they can end the win drought in the main phase of the T20 World Cup. Bangladesh's only win in the T20 World Cup's main phase came in the inaugural edition in 2007 against West Indies.
Source: BSS