[al-Sagar]

what ever happened in the bowling and who could have bowled and how he could have bowled can be an endless debate and we will have those debates all along our career as fans. i don't want to get in that debate here. i am putting up my thoughts what was the reason we failed to achieve the target.

the target of 198 was there and it was tough for us. we had a great start. we had a chance but we could not finish and fell only 18 short and realized in the 20 overs we actually had a lots of chances where those 18 runs could have been scored.

First the FULL TOSSES.

i think any other format TEST or ODI, mahmudullah would have hit at least two of those full tosses for boundary. remember how mushfiq took a big step in the victory against india in asia cup when he hit those boundaries agaisnt irfan pathan who bowled some juicy full tosses ???? mamudullah surely has the ability to dispatch like mushfiq can.

but yesterday all those full toss balls, mahmudullah had one thing he needs to tonk, and tonk hard and get a six. because that was the demand of the game and demand of t20 format. so he tried to tonk hard and mistimed. he never first saw where the ball is and decide to play it in his merit. he was standing firm and just looked for the mid wicket region.

but if it was some other format perhaps he would have not been in a mindset of tonking hard for six. he could have cleverly swept or placed it in the gaps. the same thing he did in the last ODI.

BUT more than the inability of dispatching full tosses the thing that HURT us more was their REFUSAL of Taking more than SIngles

tamim on the other side was not running well. if riadh had placed a shot in a gap even if there was a chance to take 2s or 3s tamim was only fit for a single.

thats why both tamim and mahmudullah realised they cant place or chip or scoop the ball in gaps and run 2s or 3s. because they would get only 1 run. all they need to is get boundaries. so all of the time they had only boundaries in mind. they never tried to play the ball with its merit and try to run 2s or 3s. never attempted an innovative shot.

ok, tamim said they tried to hit and if they cant hit no body could have. well may be that is true. none of us in BC where out in the pitch and none of us could tell actually how hard it was to hit in those conditions.

BUT WAS TAMIM AND MAHMUDULLAH TRYING TO RUN HARD ???? no they were not. that was the main reason we lost. at least 10-15 times, tamim and riadh never even attempted the second runs which was on. and also when both saw that they cant run 2s or 3s, they stopped attempting clever innovative shots and running for 2s or 3s. they were only looking for the big hits over mid wicket and long on but never tried to steer through third man or sweep through square/fine leg or scoop over wicet keeper.

seriously may be the next batsman may have not hit like tamim and riadh for boundaries but they could have played those innovative shots and run well and score at a higher run rate.

well we had a good overall series againt WI. in fact we had a good over all year. the players have sometimes done exceptionally well, but again some time have done very poor. and what hurts is we do some very basic things wrong. but we are improving and our expectations are increasing too. now we dare to expect us to score 300, chase 300 where us a few years ago even if opponent scored 225+ we accepted defeat.

we hope our players learn the lessons and our cricket takes the next steps next year.