SPORTS REPORTER

“We need to learn from our mistakes.” This statement is the staple of Bangladesh players, uttered almost every time they lose a game.

However, barely anyone gets to see the true reflection of these words.

Such was the case on Saturday as well, with Bangladesh once again suffering a batting collapse in their second of the three ODIs against hosts Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

For the second consecutive time, Bangladesh’s middle-order spoiled a decent start provided by their top-order in yet another woeful batting show.

After losing the opening match due to losing seven wickets for just five runs, it was expected that the Tigers would learn from their mistakes.

Opener Parvez Hossain Emon’s maiden ODI fifty, in only his second ODI, gave the visitors a much-needed early momentum.

However, their lack of game sense and poor shot selection in the middle overs saw Bangladesh fold before playing the full allotted 50 overs. They were bundled out for 248 runs in 45.5 overs.

Emon (67 off 69 balls) falling prey to a brilliant googly from legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga reduced the visitors to 110-3 in the 20th over, with the onus shifted to Towhid Hridoy, skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Shamim Hossain, and Jaker Ali Anik to utilise the start.

Miraz, promoted one place up in the order, threw away his wicket once pacer Dushmantha Chameera tested him with a short ball, which the Bangladesh skipper didn’t even try to keep down.

It was clear that Miraz hardly had anything planned to overcome this aspect of his game, despite falling prey to similar ploys in recent international matches.

Shamim, who replaced out-of-form Litton Das, looked solid during his short stay. But despite having more than 21 overs, he fell to the same short ball ploy, losing his wicket to pacer Asitha Fernando after making 23-ball 22.

As the last recognised batting pair, Hridoy and Jaker had plenty of time to play according to the situation. They even started well to take the Tigers’ score past the 200-run mark, but once Jaker (24 off 40) failed to negate Asitha’s knuckle ball, Bangladesh’s batting crumbled -- slipping to 218-9 from 204-5.

Bangladesh had the last hope with Hridoy, who was the second highest scorer on the day with 51 runs and also became the joint second fastest with Soumya Sarkar to complete 1000 ODI runs for Bangladesh in his 33rd innings. However, a terrible mix-up with Taznim Hasan Sakib saw him fall to a run-out.

Had Sakib not played an unbeaten 21-ball 33-run cameo, adding 30 runs for the final wicket with Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh would have been bundled out for a much cheaper score. And the blame would need to be shouldered by the ones who consistently fail to live up to their words of “learning from mistakes”.