Bangladesh win hearts but not enough games

It was always going to be tough for Bangladesh to stay in the race for the semi-final once they lost a close encounter against New Zealand and had their match against Sri Lanka washed out.

But they came close once again, but failed to win when it really mattered, and that too once again against India. 

As heartbreaking as it may be, the reality is that under pressure, Bangladesh have faltered in three big moments this World Cup, and that has cost them.

The glaring mistakes:

There was the missed run out chance against New Zealand, where Mushfiqur Rahim broke the stumps before gathering the ball, giving Kane Willamson a life, which was pivotal in Bangladesh’s defeat.

Then there was the drop catch of David Warner by Sabbir Rahman, which allowed him to score a big century and pile on a total in excess of 380, and that was always going to be out of reach for this batting line-up against their bowling attack.

And finally, today, the dropped catch of Rohit Sharma by Tamim Iqbal, who is a very good catcher, and that allowed Sharma to score another century as India posted a total in excess of 300; it would have been much lower if Sharma was out for nine.

And of course, we saw one of the biggest and traditional weaknesses of the Bangladesh team in display, as the batsmen played rash shots and gave their wickets away during the run chase under a must-win pressure situation against India, whereas calmer and cooler heads would have prevailed and aced the chase. 

The mistakes that could have been avoided:

These were three big glaring moments that Bangladesh failed to play well, but there were a lot of errors and that was covered up by the consistent brilliance of Shakib Al Hasan along with some spirited batting performances throughout the tournament which allowed the Tigers to fight with every opposition barring England. 

The England game was a tactical error from the inspirational captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza - who has been playing the entire World Cup with what is a suspected grade 2 hamstring tear - as he chose to field first after winning the toss instead of batting first and making England chase, something they have struggled to do this World Cup.
Bangladesh also lacked a clear plan with their opening bowlers and their bowling combinations and as a result there were games where the bowling and fielding just went through the motions - like in the last 15 overs against Australia. 

Then there has been the traditional weakness of failing to score enough runs in the last ten overs and that was once again evident in the games against New Zealand - where the batting collapsed - and in the game against Afghanistan - where the batting was too timid in the last 10 overs even with wickets in hand and where the batting order was tinkered with as Liton Das opened and Soumya Sarkar batted in the middler-order and it didn’t work. 

But there are positives:

All of these add up to a campaign that didn’t live up to the lofty expectations that the 160 million people in Bangladesh had, of Bangladesh reaching the semi-finals.

But the brand of cricket, an attractive, fighting brand of cricket, showing that defeating or challenging any team is no longer an upset, has been a pleasant surprise for the neutral fans.

With this being Mashrafe’s last World Cup, Shakib is set to take over the reigns when Mashrafe finally retires, and if his form can be maintained, the rest of the team should be able to take Bangladesh forward in the next few years.

Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar are all getting better with more game time and experience and players like Mosaddek Hossain Saikat and Sabbir Rahman are also trying to establish themselves into the side, so there are players stepping up. 

Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes hoped that his team could maintain this fighting spirit in the future games to become more popular among cricket lovers across the world.  

"I am very proud with the way we played against the big teams. Maybe we will be the people's team for the amount of fight we have shown,” Rhodes said at the post-match press-conference. 

The truth though is, the team Bangladesh have now, has been building for over a decade and finding five players like Mashrafe, Shakib, Tamim, Mushfiq and Mahmudullah Riyad with a similar amount of experience will be difficult. 

So there are going to be some senior players that will be disappointed with this campaign as the old problems still persist even though progress has been made. 

At the end of the day, nothing could replicate getting a semi-final berth for these set of players in the World Cup and if they had a bit of luck go their way, like they did in 2015, when a game against Australia was washed out, this might have been a more successful campaign.

The players would have been happier with more wins and points, even if they won less hearts.