Shanto blames Zimbabwe series pitches for poor batting against USA

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto blamed the wickets in the Zimbabwe series for their poor batting display and shock loss against USA in the first T20I at Houston's Prairie View ground on Tuesday.

Batting first, Bangladesh got off to a decent start but once again lost wickets in clusters to end up with a total of 153-6 in their 20 overs.

The batters often seemed to lack attacking intent at times and that resulted in a total that was chasable for the home side with three deliveries to spare.

"I don't think it's wrong with the instincts. We did not play on a good wicket even in the Zimbabwe series so our batters are really struggling. But it's all mentality things so I really hope the batsman will come back in form," Shanto said in the post-match presentation.

The left-handed batter felt the Tigers were 20 runs short of what would have been a good score and blamed the batting for the loss.

"We didn't bat well. We started well in the beginning but in the middle, we lost a couple of wickets, so I think if we scored 20 more runs then it would have been a decent total," he said.

USA got off to a good start with the bat but lost wickets in the middle when the Bangladesh spinners came on.

However, the hosts managed to chase the total down even when 55 runs were required off the last four overs with five wickets in hand as Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam proved to be expensive.

They were guilty of giving away 17, 14 and 15 runs in three overs leaving USA needing just nine runs in the last over with Shanto handing the ball to part-timer Mahmudullah Riyad in the final over.

"Our spinners bowled really well. In the last 2-3 overs our seamers did not execute their plan. So I hope in the next matches they will come back," Shanto concluded. 

Bangladesh take on USA in the 2nd of three T20Is on Thursday in the same ground and will look for a better showing to avoid an embarrassing series loss.