After losing the final of the Nidahas trophy in a heart-breaking manner, the captain of the Bangladesh cricket team Shakib Al Hasan has refused to point fingers at anyone. According to him, he just asked Soumya Sarkar to take his time while bowling the last over, something which was difficult for a part-time bowler to do.

"I didn't tell [Soumya] anything in particular," Shakib said. "It is better not to tell a bowler [too much]. I just told him to take his time. Sometimes you can rush into a delivery and then miss your length. I think he bowled very well for three overs and in fact I can't really blame anyone; we just had two bad overs. I am not blaming anyone. I am really proud of the team's bowling and fielding effort."

With a blinder of an 18th over from Mustafizur Rahman, where he gave away only a run and took a wicket as well, Bangladesh needed to defend 34 runs in the final two overs. Rubel Hossain was given the ball in the penultimate over and gave away 22 runs.

That led to Soumya Sarkar having only 12 runs to defend in the final over. This decision of bowling Rubel in the 19^th over surprised many, but Shakib had a convincing logic.

"When Mustafizur [Rahman] bowled that brilliant over India were left needing [34] off the last two overs. Rubel was our best bowler today after the way he bowled his first three overs. I believed in him. I thought even if he bowled badly, he would go for 15 runs.

"I would have 20 runs to play with [in the final over], which would have given Soumya some cushion. This was why I brought Rubel for the 19th over."

Shakib, who is aware of Dinesh Karthik’s prowess, admired the wicketkeeper for his insane hitting and was convinced that only a very few could do what he did, despite Rubel not bowling entirely badly.

"He didn't miss [his lengths] by much. I don't know many batsmen who can hit a six off the first ball, and then keep hitting the boundaries.

"There are very few instances in history. There was something other-worldly about it. Rubel got a bit nervous after going for 10 runs off the first two balls. I still feel that I will back him the next time such a situation comes."

This is the 5^th time that Bangladesh have lost a final of a limited overs’ tournament and Shakib isn’t sure of whether it just bad luck or poor ability to handle the nerves.