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Downplayed expectations couldn’t fix old ailments
Losing skipper Shakib Al Hasan to a controversial decision was a big blow to Bangladesh but they were expected to regroup fast, given a historic last-four progress was at stake in T20 World Cup. Afterwards, the impetus at key stages remained missing as the likes of Mosaddek Hossain suffered an untimely dismissal at the back-end of innings and, later, wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan Sohan dropped a regulation catch of Pakistan opener Mohammad Rizwan to deny the Tigers getting momentum in their defence of a meagre 128.
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Bangladesh failed to capitalise on a golden opportunity to make their T20 World Cup campaign truly momentous as they succumbed to a five-wicket defeat against Pakistan in their final Super 12 encounter of the T20 World Cup at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
Both the Tigers as well as Pakistan were thrown a lifeline for the final-four qualification after the Netherlands stunned a superior South Africa, who were the favourites to reach semis.
But as is the case, Bangladesh failed to grasp their opportunity as they again faltered with the bat. The bowlers then had an uphill task to defend a meagre 128-run target which Pakistan, despite some jitters, inevitably chased down with 11 balls to spare.
From the T20 World Cup’s build-up, Bangladesh had successfully downplayed any kind of expectations for the marquee event, which made sense following the T20 World Cup debacle in the Middle East last year.
Bangladesh, who are still trying to come to terms with the shortest format of the game, had both their captain and team management curtail any real ambitions for the tournament, while fans and experts alike had difficulties keeping Bangladesh ahead against the likes of Netherlands and Zimbabwe.
And despite Shakib Al Hasan’s troops edged past the two aforementioned teams to make their campaign the most successful-ever for Bangladesh, the Tigers suffered a hammering against South Africa and failed to cross the line against India in a tight affair, leaving lot of questions aimed towards their capacity to achieve success in the 20-over format.
“In terms of results, this is the best performance we had in T20 World Cups,” Shakib told reporters yesterday.
“We could’ve done better. But having said that, with the new guys coming in, with the changes, this is the best we could expect.”
On Sunday against Pakistan, Bangladesh were lucky to have a few half-chances go their way as they reached 70 for one in 10 overs but they lost two wickets on back-to-back deliveries to lose serious momentum. After Soumya Sarkar departed to Shadab Khan, Shakib was wrongly given out as leg-before by third-umpire after replays showed he had gotten an inside-edge on to his pads.
Meanwhile, Najmul Hossain Shanto, who was anchoring the innings with a 48-ball 54, threw his wicket away while trying to up the ante. Shanto’s untimely dismissal, the innings’ fourth, then resulted in the Bangladesh middle-order misfiring to score only 36 off the remaining 40 deliveries.
The middle-order of Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, and Mosaddek Hossain all finished their Australia campaign with strike-rates of under 100, which tells a lot about Bangladesh’s inability to use a launching platform in the death overs despite having wickets in hand.
In the bowling department, barring the hammering against South Africa, Bangladesh have fared nicely with Taskin, Mustafiz, and Hasan Mahmud doing their bit. But a dismal collective batting asked a lot from the bowlers and things might’ve been different for Bangladesh in those close contests had the batters rose to the occasion.
Shakib has placed the onus on putting up performances as a unit, but the Tigers were a disjointed unit in this World Cup as the same old problems, which held Bangladesh back time and again, was there for all to see.

Tigers’ T20 WC 2022 campaign highlights
Liton Das, during his 27-ball 60 blitz against India, registered the second-fastest T20I fifty, off 21 balls, by a Bangladesh batter and the third-fastest fifty of the ongoing event.
Najmul Hossain Shanto became the fourth Bangladesh batter to register two fifties in T20 World Cups, having scored 71 and 54 against the Netherlands and Pakistan, respectively.
Spinner Nasum Ahmed, in his maiden T20 World Cup match, recorded the best economy-rate of 3.50 for the Tigers in this event with figures of 1-14 against Pakistan, while fast-bowler Mustafizur Rahman ended up with 5.60 economy-rate but could only scalp three wickets.
Speedster Taskin Ahmed was Bangladesh’s most impactful bowler in this event, with eight wickets at an impressive economy-rate of 7.27.