|| CF Correspondent || 

Poor batting and bowling in the first 10 overs was the reason behind their seven-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka in the second ODI of three match series, said wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim.

With this defeat, Bangladesh's hope of rescuing the series is well and truly over. The last match of the series will only be a matter of pride and a chance to refrain themselves from the shame of being whitewashed. 

While batting, in first 10 overs Bangladesh could only accumulate just 35 runs losing two crucial wickets of opener Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar. Between 15 overs they also lost the wicket of Mohammad Mithun and score was 52-3. 

If Mushfiq didn’t put up a partnership of 84 runs with Mehidy Hasan Miraz for the seventh wicket Bangladesh wouldn’t have crossed 200 mark. 
In bowling, Bangladesh continued their poor performance of the first match. They gave away 69 runs without taking any wicket in slow difficult pitch. These poor performance of batting and bowling in the first 10 overs paved Bangladesh’s defeat, Mushfiqur said.

"And reason behind our losing as I said earlier both in batting and bowling in the first 10 overs we were behind. Because in that wicket they scored 70-69 runs in the first 10 overs. If they took more risk we could have picked up one or two wickets. That didn’t happen. And when we lost 4/5 wickets in first 10-15 overs then it becomes difficult to make a comeback," Mushfiq said at the post match press conference.   

At the end, Bangladesh missed a power hitter who can make up the runs, Mushfiq believes. As there is no power hitter in the side, they have to catch up with the run rate in the middle overs. 

"We don’t have that type of power hitter who will cover up 100 runs in the last 10 overs. So, it becomes very difficult. From the start we have to catch up with that we have to as fast as we can in the middle overs," added Mushfiq.