Nahida blames poor bowling despite batting collapse for loss against India in 2nd ODI

Nahida Akhter of the Bangladesh women's team admitted that they didn't bowl well enough in the 2nd ODI against India and that's what cost them the match as they lost by 108 runs at Mirpur on Wednesday. 

"If we talk about bowling, we could not give 100% according to our bowling strength. We gave away 30-40 runs more than what we should have. And the fielding today was worse than the last match. They scored too many runs," she said at the post match press conference. 

However, it was the batting that collapsed as Bangladesh lost their last seven wickets for just 14 runs during the chase.

They were bowled out for 120 runs chasing a target of 229 set by India women. 

"Those of us who batted in the middle, couldn't play responsibly. Because of this, we lost so many wickets towards the last. The coaches are working with us as we couldn't give 100%," she admitted.

She refused to blame the Mirpur wicket, which has been known to be low and slow: "No I don't think anything happened on the wicket. The wicket was good. We actually lost because of our mistakes."

Despite the big loss, Nahida feels that Bangladesh are mentally strong and can make a comeback in the final match of the series.: "We are mentally strong. Inshallah, we will enter the field to win our last match series. I will try with 100% effort."

Bangladesh's batting record in Mirpur is not a great one and they have never managed to post a total in excess of 200 at the Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

However, Nahida feels that they have the batting strength to score over 220 runs: "Our batting plan is to score over 220 runs in accordance with our strength. Our bowling is our obvious strength though."

Bangladesh face India in the final ODI at Mirpur on on Saturday with the day match starting at 9:30 am.