||CF Correspondent||

Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan believes that they extras cost them dearly against their Afghani counterpart as they failed to hold on to the momentum in their second Twenty20 International at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

 Despite a brilliant start with the ball by Bangladesh that saw Afghanistan struggling on 40 for four before the end of the Powerplay, a blistering 84-run knock from Mohammad Nabi helped them post 164 for six and set up a comfortable 25-run win over the hosts yesterday.

Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan pointed to the extras -- which totalled 18 during Afghanistan’s innings -- as one of the reasons for the defeat, and admitted that the Tigers had gifted the game to their opposition after being in a position from which they could have dominated.

“We always knew that we lag behind them in terms of power but it was frustrating that we were not able to pick up wickets and they scored 106 runs in the last 10 overs. They should get credit for the way they handled the pressure and at the same time we also made mistakes as we were controlling the game pretty well.

“But I think it’s the no-ball [by Taijul Islam that negated the dismissal of Asghar Afghan] that hurt us a lot as we conceded 15-16 extra runs. We need to improve in those areas. I still don’t think we are far behind, although a 25-run loss is a big margin. Even if they batted very well, they should not have scored more than 135 as we were unable to pick wickets at the end [after Asghar was dismissed]. We gave them that opportunity to make a comeback into the game,” Shakib told reporters after the game yesterday.