Mashrafe concerned about lack of 300+ totals
Mashrafe Morataza
|| CF Correspondent ||
Despite having individual big scores at their disposal, Bangladesh have so far failed to surpass the 300-run mark in ODIs in recent past. Following the West Indies series, the batsmen’s individual big knocks were instrumental in the Tigers’ success at the Asia Cup and in the first ODI against Zimbabwe, but they consistently failed to lift the score past 300 runs.
Though Bangladesh played in relatively unfamiliar wickets in the West Indies and during the Asia Cup, not being able to score 300 runs in their own backyard is something that is irking Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza.
Bangladesh were able to total only 272 runs against Zimbabwe in the first ODI albeit Imrul contributed with his career-best innings of 144 runs. They team scored at a brisk rate in the slog-overs but lost wickets in bunches in the middle, which potentially ended their chance of reaching 300 runs. The Bangladesh captain is also concerned regarding the team’s batting in the middle-overs.
Bangladesh have reached 300 runs twice in this year so far and in both of those matches Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan shared a big partnership in the top-order.
“The score is not reaching three hundred even after a century from a single batsman. If someone from the top-order scores a hundred, it is normal to reach three hundred runs. I'm worried about this. The one who is scoring the hundred is not getting any help from the others, so his century is coming up so late in the match that the total is not getting bigger. This adjustment is still not happening,” Mashrafe told reporters ahead of the second ODI against Zimbabwe.
Against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh lost the wicket of their set-batsman, Mohammad Mithun, in the 28th over, with 134 runs on the board. Mahmudullah Riyad was also dismissed in the same over, before the Chevrons sent Mehidy Hasan back to the hut in no time. Imrul had to rebuild the innings from there, by sacrificing the thought of scoring at a good rate.
“We expected more than 270 in Mirpur. The Mirpur wicket was uneven at the beginning. But the way Mithun and Imrul were batting after a partnership, [scoring] 310-315 was easily achievable. But if you look from another side, what happened was also very good. We are relieved with Saifuddin scoring runs.” said Mashrafe.
