Difficult to pick positives after shocking loss: Mortaza

The last-ball defeat to India in the thrilling World Twenty20 encounter was nothing short of shocking, said a gutted Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza, who was at a loss to explain the chase that went haywire in the last three deliveries.

Bangladesh lost by one run in the nerve-wrecking contest, which Mortaza’s men dominated for most part.

“The loss was a shocking thing for all of us. Nobody wants to lose like this. It is hard to explain but it is quite disappointing,” Mortaza told reporters in the post-match press conference.

“And it’s always difficult to take something from it.  Being a professional player, we have to play hard cricket in the last match. If we can do something there we can take something back home. We have to fight hard,” he said.

However, Mortaza did not forget to applaud the team’s effort before things went India’s way in the last three balls.

“Leave out the last three balls, we played brilliantly.  We did everything to win otherwise. We came back after they had two good overs towards the end. We played well at nearly every moment,” he said.

Mortaza refused to blame the loss on any specific player.

“I am not going to blame anyone,” Mashrafe said. “The whole dressing-room felt disappointed after the loss. We needed two off the last three balls, and we had two set batsmen at the crease and one still in the shed. It becomes very hard for everyone when we end up losing three wickets in that situation,” he said.

He also defended his batsmen’s strategy of going for the big shots even in the final stages of the match even though dealing in singles and twos would have been enough.

“If we were calculative at that stage, it wouldn’t have given us much risk. There were no fielders in the circle. If we had taken a single (off the delivery that Mushfiqur got out), it would have set us up in a better position. It would have helped if we thought like that. We just couldn’t do it that way,” he said.

“Mushfiqur could have been more careful, but at the same time, since he got us close - maybe he celebrated because of that. There’s nothing to be negative about, because any batsman would get boosted up after those two fours,” he added.