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‘We played Rajasthan Royals recently and got defeated by a weak batting line-up … Against a strong team like Mumbai we’re going to need miracles’

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Apr-20199:44

We are a good team but making bad decisions – Andre Russell

After winning four of their first five matches of this IPL season, Kolkata Knight Riders have lost their last six matches on the bounce. Their batting has come under plenty of criticism for the situation they find themselves in, but Andre Russell believes the blame lies elsewhere.”We have a good team,” Russell said on the eve of Knight Riders’ match against Mumbai Indians. “But having a good team and making bad decisions, I think you will always lose games. And that’s what we’ve been doing.”I could pinpoint a few games where if we’d just looked to bowl tighter, and bowl bowlers who would restrict the game – the right bowlers at the right time [the results would’ve been different]. They say our batting has been struggling, but our batting hasn’t been struggling really. We get the totals that we should defend, and we should restrict teams to lesser totals and go in and get those runs. And we don’t really take our catches, we’ve been the worst fielding team so far. It’s plain on TV, everyone’s seeing it.”As an example of Knight Riders’ inability to defend totals, he picked their most recent game, against Rajasthan Royals – a “weak batting line-up” – who chased down 176 after slipping to 123 for 6.”I’m disappointed that we played Rajasthan Royals recently and got defeated by a weak batting line-up,” Russell said. “If you can’t restrict a team for under 170-plus with our bowling attack, then against a strong team like Mumbai we’re going to need miracles. We just have to count on our belief. If we win the next three games, chances are that things might go our way. But we have to win our games.”Russell has been Knight Riders’ standout performer this season – with 406 runs at a strike rate of nearly 210, and eight wickets – but he says his team’s performances have left him deflated.”To be in this position is not the most healthiest,” Russell said. “I find myself just being in my room for the last couple of days. Losing game after game… I’m not the type of guy to go walking around like I’m doing something good. Even if I score a half-century or get five wickets and we come out on the losing end, it doesn’t make me want to leave my room.”We as cricketers, we have to hold our passion inside and not show it on the television. I’m passionate inside. Sometimes it may show on the field. I may get upset at a team-mate for dropping a catch or not taking a half-chance. Because when mess up, [opposition] guys take our half-chances. It’s hard to go walking around, losing six games in a row. It’s not healthy. I’m feeling down at the moment, but tomorrow when I cross that rope, my level will be 150.”As for his highly-debated batting position – he has himself advocated going higher up the order – Russell hinted at more flexibility in the matches to come.”Yes, there have been conversations with the coach, and he’s backing me to go in whenever the team needs me,” Russell said. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll see me a bit earlier, maybe I’ll be coming in at the same lower-order spot. It all depends on what happens tomorrow. You can’t predict the future.”If we should get a good start, then maybe I’ll just stay where I normally bat. I can go in at four-five overs to go, I’m happy doing that. If the team needs me to bat 12 overs tomorrow, I’m happy to bat 12. If they need me to bat three or four, that’s my job.”Andre Russell goes big•BCCI

Asked about the prospect of facing one of the best attacks in the IPL in Mumbai Indians, Russell said the pressure would be on the bowlers and not on him.”I never fear any bowler. Never. Bowlers fear me! (laughter) I’m not bragging or anything,” Russell said. “I can get out in one ball tomorrow, or the first ball they bowl can go for six. I’m not afraid to get out. It’s not a life and death situation. You’re giving yourself a chance to score runs, and they’re trying to get you out.”[Jasprit] Bumrah is a top bowler, [Lasith] Malinga – top bowler. But they’re human beings. Tomorrow they can bowl a few balls that slip out of the fingers and don’t come out like they normally come out – and I’m in business. I never back down.”The Eden Gardens crowd has witnessed four straight Knight Riders defeats. Russell was amazed that spectators were still packing the stands.”It’s been unbelievable to be honest. We keep losing game after game, but the stadium is always full,” Russell said. “And I know Sunday we’ll get another full crowd. It’s just amazing.”In the Caribbean, if I was playing for West Indies or Jamaica, and we lose six games in a row, you’ll not see no fans to be honest. You’re going to see a few die-hard fans, but you won’t see the stadium full like this. People are going to say, ‘you’re not playing good cricket’. It’s not like the English Premier League where guys look to fight. It’s just amazing. I would appreciate if the stadium gets full tomorrow. That would really get me pumped, after hitting a boundary and taking a wicket to hear a big cheer. That would really keep us going.”

In light of their failure in the home T20s against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh pace bowlers were ordered to participate in a special training camp under bowling coach Courtney Walsh ahead of the Nidahas Trophy

Mohammad Isam23-Feb-2018Bangladesh’s bowling coach Courtney Walsh will brief pace bowlers in a week-long camp on how to prepare for certain match situations. Becoming more consistent and mentally strong are other areas in focus as they prepare for the Nidahas Trophy T20s in March, which involves India and hosts Sri Lanka. The camp started on Friday and will go on until March 2.Bangladesh’s pace bowlers have come under increased scrutiny after their failure to stop Sri Lanka batsmen in the two T20s that rounded up a miserable home season for Bangladesh. Sri Lanka won the T20 series by putting up scores of 194 and 210, and losing eight wickets across the two matches. As a result, BCB president Nazmul Hassan ordered a special training camp for the pace bowlers, under Walsh, which includes Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain among the 14.”We are working on the mental side of bowling in the camp,” Walsh said. “They have to back themselves and keep it simple. In my assessment, that’s what has happened in the last series. The guys went a little bit over the top in terms of trying a bit too hard. They have to know what best to do in a situation and how to execute it. If they get the consistency, eight out of ten times it will work in your favour. We are trying to get them to be consistent and remain relaxed with the execution.”Walsh said that the camp will also take the bowlers back to basics, to give them a better understanding of pace bowling, and at the same time work on their consistency. “We haven’t bowled as consistently as we would have liked so this camp is to focus on that. They have to understand their roles in the upcoming tour.”The camp is also to make them know what fast bowling is all about, and the hard work that is required. It is a combination of both. We are trying to keep it simple. We are focused on the consistency, working on the skill-set and get a better understanding of it.”The camp includes six uncapped pace bowlers, some of whom appeared in the BPL in November last year. After initially seeing what they bring to the table, Walsh said these young pace bowlers, whom he is seeing for the first time, will be taken through the rigours.”It is the first time I am seeing some of these guys properly,” he stated. “To look at them today was to assess them and see what they have. Over the next few days, we will be doing specific work on individuals. They have to improve their departments.”If they are weak in any department, we will work on it. If they are strong, we will get them to be stronger. It is to develop the overall skill of the player. At the end of the day, I am here to make Bangladesh cricket as best as it can be, and for the bowlers to be a lot more consistent.”

Virat Kohli has been unveiled as the latest cover star of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, following his leading role in India’s clean sweep of trophies against England

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Feb-20172:32

India’s player of the year – Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has been unveiled as the latest cover star of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, following his leading role in India’s clean sweep of trophies in all three formats of their recent series against England.Kohli, who made two centuries in India’s 4-0 Test series win before Christmas, including a career-best 235 in the fourth Test at Mumbai, is pictured playing a reverse sweep – a reflection, according to Wisden’s editor, Lawrence Booth, of the manner in which he has helped to revolutionise the sport in recent years.Kohli’s reverse-sweep adorns the cover of Wisden 2017•Wisden

“It underlines the fact that he is a very modern cricketer,” Booth told ESPNcricinfo. “It felt like the right time to get some unorthodoxy onto the cover. People often think of Wisden as a bastion of orthodoxy, but cricket is changing so rapidly that it felt like the right time to reflect that, and Kohli was the right man for the job.”Kohli is the third cricketer of Asian extraction to feature on the front cover in the past four editions. His former India team-mate Sachin Tendulkar was honoured in 2014 following his retirement from international cricket, while England’s Moeen Ali was the cover star for 2015.Kohli is the stand-out contender to be named as Wisden’s Leading Player of the Year, an accolade that dates back to 2004, when Ricky Ponting was the original recipient.”Kohli will be fresh in the mind of all cricket fans after his performances against England,” Booth said. “He has pulled clear of the likes of Steve Smith, Joe Root, Kane Williamson and AB de Villiers, and is clearly the most exciting all-format batsman in world cricket.”However, Kohli has not yet been named as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year, the book’s oldest honour that can only be bestowed once in a player’s career and tends to reflect a player’s impact on the preceding English season.Kohli’s record in England does not yet match his overall impact on the sport – his only previous Test appearances in the country came in 2014, when he made 134 runs in five Tests at 13.40 in England’s 3-1 series win.However, he seems intent on making amends when India next tour England in 2018, and admitted last year that he would consider a stint in county cricket to acclimatise himself properly for the challenge.The 2017 edition of Wisden will be published in April, to coincide with the start of the English season.

Jonny Bairstow goes into the opening warm-up game of England’s tour of South Africa knowing that he is at last England’s first-choice wicketkeeper in Test cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2015Jonny Bairstow goes into the opening warm-up game of England’s tour of South Africa, against an Invitational XI at Potchefstroom tomorrow, knowing that he is at last England’s first-choice wicketkeeper in Test cricket, having twice been handed the role mid-series following an incumbent’s loss of form.Bairstow, whom England’s coach Trevor Bayliss confirmed at the weekend would start the Boxing Day Test at Durban, inherited the gloves for the final Test of England’s tour of the UAE, at Sharjah last month, after Jos Buttler had mustered 430 runs at 23.88 in 12 previous Tests in 2015. And this time he believes he is ready to make the job his own, having originally been handed the role in invidious circumstances during England’s whitewash tour of Australia in 2013-14.On that occasion, again for a Boxing Day Test at Melbourne, he took over from Matt Prior with England in freefall, 3-0 down in the series and with the Ashes already gone, and he proved powerless to resist the tide with scores of 10, 21, 18 and 0 in a pair of crushing defeats.Bairstow believes, however, that he is stronger for that experience. Though he does not doubt that Buttler has the wherewithal to battle back into contention, not least after his eye-popping 46-ball hundred in the recent ODI series against Pakistan, the chance to start the series with the gloves, having already earned selection as a pure batsman since the midpoint of last summer’s Ashes, will help him to play a key part in what he terms a “massive” series.”There’s always healthy competition,” Bairstow told reporters in Potchefstroom. “Jos has played some fantastic stuff in one-day cricket and Test cricket so the competition for places is there but that will drive us on to become better players and better people.”You can never take anything for granted,” he added. “Every spot within the side has got to be treasured and every opportunity you get you’ve got to try and take. So from game to game you’re always wanting to do as well as you can and get a run.”Hopefully I’ll be able to secure that spot. I’ve only kept in three Test matches but it’s an exciting time for me personally. I’m really looking forward to the challenge and with that comes a lot of responsibility.”Looking back on his baptism of fire in the 2013-14 Ashes, Bairstow was phlegmatic about the experience, from a personal point of view as well as that of the overall team.”I think I’ve grown as a person over the last couple of years since the two Tests in Australia,” he said. “The position of the squad and the morale in the camp is completely different from what it was going into those Test matches in Melbourne and Sydney.”When you’re 3-0 down against an Australian side that’s flying it’s never going to be an easy Test. So there’s different circumstances that are around this group of players at the moment and it’s an exciting time to be involved in English cricket.”As if being a Test wicketkeeper-batsman is not an onerous task in itself, Bairstow will have to match the standards of arguably the best current allround cricketer in the world, following South Africa’s decision to hand AB de Villiers the wicketkeeping duties for the Durban Test, with Dane Vilas, who held the role during their recent 3-0 series loss in India, left out of the squad.It is not exactly an onerous task as far as de Villiers is concerned. He has performed the role in 23 of his 102 Tests, including as a 20-year-old way back in his debut series against England in 2004-05, while his Test average in those matches is a remarkable 58.26. Seven of his 21 Test hundreds have come while doubling up with the gloves, most recently against West Indies at Cape Town in January.”You want to do as well as you can against the best that you can,” Bairstow said. “Obviously comparing yourself to someone like AB is going to be a fantastic challenge and if you do come out being the better of the wicketkeeper-batsmen then I will have had a very good tour.”Having the confidence of the captain and coach going into the warm-up games and hopefully the first Test allows you to be relaxed and enjoy yourself,” he added. “That’s when I play my best cricket and hopefully I’ll be able to do that not only in the warm-up games but going into the series.”

Barbados won the Regional Four-Day competition for the first time since its inception, and finally broke the dominant hold that Jamaica has had on the competition

ESPNcricinfo staff12-May-2013
ScorecardKirk Edward and Everton Weekes at the trophy presentation•WICB Media Photo/Randy Brooks

Barbados registered their first first-class triumph in six seasons, winning by an innings and 22 runs against Trinidad & Tobago despite a fighting 140 from Lendl Simmons while his team was following on. That also meant that for the first time in six years, the competition has not been won by Jamaica, who lost out to T&T in the semi-finals this season.T&T, coming into the third – and eventually final – day on 140 for 4, were only able to add 30 runs before Denesh Ramdin fell for 18. Lendl Simmons and Ramdhin had put on 83 runs for the fifth wicket, in an effort to reduce the deficit after T&T’s first innings flop for 110.The wicket of Simmons followed soon after with the score on 195. Simmons, who had been batting on 111 overnight, was caught-behind off the bowling of Jonathan Carter. Miguel Cummins and Javon Searles then took out the remaining batsmen. They ultimately fell 23 runs short of making Barbados bat again.Kraigg Brathwaite of Barbados ended up the second-highest run scorer in the competition with 577 runs in eight matches, while their offspinner Ashley Nurse finished third-highest wicket taker with 45 wickets in eight.Hendy Springer, the Barbados coach, was delighted with his team’s performance. “It feels great to win a trophy, after the kind of start we had to the season [Barbados began with a loss to Jamaica], and to look around and see some of the young players improve, which is the definition of success for me.”We had guys that were willing or fight, willing to prove their worth and that was important. Players have come with higher skill levels than the ones we had this season, but the fight that they showed day in, day out was what made the difference.This team is different to others that I have coached over the years since it does not include a number of players that have represented West Indies at the higher levels. When I first started coaching Barbados back in December 2000, we had players like Roland Holder, Philo Wallace, Sherwin Campbell, Hendy Bryan, Adrian Griffith, Floyd Reifer to name a few – a number of players that had represented West Indies and it was much different then. This season we had more first-class players than West Indies players, and it was good to see those players come to the fore as well.”T&T captain Denesh Ramdin was disappointed with his side’s batting, and hoped to rectify this performance for the future. “It was an up and down season and we had to keep chopping and changing players, some going and some coming, and we never got that balance right in our batting department. We were always struggling to put 200 runs on the board but our bowlers had done it throughout the season for us. This is one of the few times we have gotten over 220 runs for the season. It is something we have to think about and we have to go back to the drawing board.”The top five or six batters need to come to the party. They didn’t come consistently as we wanted them to in this tournament. Well played to Lendl Simmons for getting a hundred this game, but having to come from 260 behind was a hard task to overcome.”I believe it is a mindset that the players have to change. We have to learn to stand up and bat longer. Players are sometimes playing too many shots and not batting as long as they should. To get hundreds, you need to bat at least two and a half sessions and we find guys are trying to get the runs all in one session. Hopefully, they can all learn from this experience and learn as fast as possible. Next year will be right around the corner and we will need to bounce back strongly.”

After having Hampshire reeling at 72 for 6, with 50 overs remaining, Gloucestershire eventually won with only 12 balls left

Ivo Tennant at the Rose Bowl15-Apr-2012
ScorecardMichael Bates almost defied Gloucestershire with 87•Getty Images

For Gloucestershire, this victory was not just important but desperately needed. Beaten in two days at Chelmsford last week and worryingly short of money, they had to dismiss Hampshire, a club with significantly greater resources, for a total of less than 289. After having them reeling at 72 for 6, with 50 overs remaining, they eventually won with only 12 balls left.Hampshire, seemingly, were on the verge of drawing what had been an absorbing contest. Michael Bates, their talented young wicketkeeper, had demonstrated he can also bat. His innings of 87 was a career best in the Championship. His partnership of 118 with Chris Wood, whose 65 was also more than he had ever made before, appeared sufficient to save the match.As it was, Will Gidman, Ian Saxelby and David Payne continued to extract life from this pitch. It was Gidman who bowled Bates and Hamza Riazuddin in swift succession. This at a stage when nothing seemed more certain than that Bates, in need of runs to ensure his club does not make any further misguided attempts to sign a more experienced replacement on the basis that he might bat better, would reach the first century of his career.Bates struck 11 fours and Wood 12. Riazuddin, too, batted with assurance. So credit to Gloucestershire’s seamers – their attack, remember, is shorn of Jon Lewis, the ideal bowler to deal with the late order – for their perseverance.Hampshire never looked likely to reach their target of 290. That was particularly so after the openers, Liam Dawson and Jimmy Adams, swiftly went, one picking out long leg and the other well held low at second slip by Chris Dent, whose fifth catch of the match this was, to say nothing of his first-innings century. Simon Katich, the one batsman who could well have stayed in all afternoon, attempted to steer Saxelby to third man and was taken behind the wicket: 36 for 3.Michael Carberry took 29 balls to get off the mark and in due course was held by Richard Coughtrie at the second attempt. When James Vince and Sean Ervine were both taken at third slip by Ian Cockbain, off Saxelby, Hampshire had subsided to 72 for 6. An early finish appeared quite possible – unless Bates, whose previous highest score was an unbeaten 58 despite possessing a sound technique, remained at the crease for a considerable time.He did just that, getting into line, collecting runs whenever he could through front foot drives and a keenness to cut. He and Wood, who put away anything on or outside leg stump to good effect, added 100 off 154 balls. Alex Gidman switched his bowlers around, utilising Ed Young’s left-arm spin, but once Bates had been bowled by brother Will, the tail was exposed.Gloucestershire, of course, are not only having to make do without Lewis. Steve Kirby and Gemaal Hussain went to Somerset the previous winter and there has been little talk since of anything but other cutbacks, players not being retained and of the need for the club to move grounds to secure its future.So they will take great heart from this triumph: the bowlers utilising the conditions to the full, the quality of the slip catching and, above all, the obduracy of Dent, a Bristol boy to boot.

Sri Lanka will have to adjust to the Test format and the English conditions if they are to challenge England this summer, Marvan Atapattu, their batting coach has said

ESPNcricinfo staff10-May-2011Sri Lanka’s batting coach Marvan Atapattu has said that the side will have to adjust to the Test format and the English conditions if they are to challenge England this summer.”The biggest challenge is to adjust to English conditions,” he said prior to the team’s departure for the two-month tour. “We are playing a Test series after a gap of a few months [Sri Lanka’s last Test was in the rain-affected series against West Indies in November-December 2010]. Winning the Test series in England is our aim.”A [Test] win will make it easier for our preparation work for the one-day and T20 games [that follow].”The squad left without newly appointed captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, and former captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, as the players are on IPL duty. While Dilshan will join the squad ahead of their first practice game – against Middlesex between May 14 and 16 – the other two seniors will join the squad along with Dilhara Fernando, Thisara Perera and Suraj Randiv, in time for the second practice game on May 18.Another notable absence in the squad leaving for England was Muttiah Muralitharan, who retired from international cricket at the end of the World Cup. While Sri Lanka are yet to win a Test series in England, Muralitharan has featured in some of their better performances there, picking up 16 wickets to help them win a one-off Test at The Oval in 1998, and eight wickets to win a Test at Trent Bridge in 2006 to draw a series.Downplaying Muralitharan’s absence, Atapattu said the tour provided a chance for fringe players like Farveez Maharoof and Kaushal Silva – who have been brought in for the first practice game as cover for the absent players – to prove their credentials.

Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris will replace the injured Brett Lee in the 15-member squad for the ICC World Twenty20, the ICC has confirmed

Cricinfo staff28-Apr-2010The fast bowler Ryan Harris will replace the injured Brett Lee in Australia’s 15-man squad for the ICC World Twenty20, the ICC has confirmed. Lee suffered a muscle strain in his right forearm while bowling during the warm-up game against Zimbabwe in St Lucia.”During yesterday’s game against Zimbabwe, Brett developed increasing right elbow pain and by the time he completed his final over the pain was significant,” Alex Kountouris, Australia’s physio, said. “At the conclusion of the innings it was obvious Brett had sustained an injury to one of the forearm muscles near the elbow and this was confirmed by a subsequent MRI scan.”Due to the condensed nature of this tournament Brett will not recover in time to take any further part and has therefore been withdrawn from the squad. This is not a recurrence of the elbow injury that recently required surgery but a new injury that will require specialist opinion upon his return to Australia.”Harris and the left-armer Doug Bollinger were the front-runners to replace Lee and the selectors preferred Harris, who had a very successful summer against Pakistan at home and later in New Zealand. Harris had a successful tournament for Deccan Chargers in the IPL this year, when he took 14 wickets in 12 games at 16.64 runs.”While it is obviously disappointing for Brett, this gives Ryan Harris a wonderful opportunity,” Andrew Hilditch, Australia’s chairman of selectors, said. “Ryan was very close to selection in the initial 15-man squad. He has been in excellent form for Australia in one-day and Test formats and during his recent stint at the IPL.”

Late collapse sees visitors fall short after Ben Kellaway rescued Glamorgan with bat

ECB Reporters Network25-Jul-2024Glamorgan 187 for 8 (Kellaway 65*) beat Gloucestershire 160 (Bracey 86, Douthwaite 4-25, Gorvin 3-32) by 27 runs Glamorgan opened their account in the Metro Bank One Day Cup with a nail-biting derby win over Gloucestershire.In a 33-over rain-affected game, Glamorgan set 187 for 8 with 20-year-old Ben Kellaway hitting a rescuing 65 not out to prevent the hosts from collapsing at 27 for 3.Dan Douthwaite shone with the ball with four for 25 including the crucial wicket of James Bracey whose solo magnificence was in vain after striking a 79-ball 86.The visitors looked set to win yet another Severnside derby before Douthwaite and Andy Gorvin combined to trigger a Gloucestershire collapse from 157 for 5 to 160 all out.Gloucestershire won the toss and put the hosts into bat after the near three-hour delay. Jack Taylor’s decision proved to be a smart one initially with openers Josh Shaw and Ajeet Singh Dale making the most of early seam movement to get into the Glamorgan middle-order.Will Smale was unable to continue his fine form from Friday’s record-breaking Vitality Blast game, bowled for a duck, with Eddie Byrom dismissed for 5 just an over later to give the Gloucestershire openers a wicket apiece.Captain Kiran Carlson and Billy Root managed to add some stability in the middle, forming a partnership of 49 from 41 balls, pouncing on some loose deliveries from Goodman and Zaman Akhter.More wickets at bad times for the hosts had a par score looking far off once again when Carlson’s attempted fine cut found the edge and, subsequently, Bracey’s gloves with a similar story for Root off Akhter. Debutant Asa Tribe and his 20-year-old teammate Kellaway were forced to rebuild from 99 for 5 with only 14 overs to bat.A catalogue of aesthetically pleasing drives through and over extra cover and straight past Akhter were the highlights of the crucial Kellaway knock.While it was Kellaway who starred, his partnerships with Tribe, Douthwaite and Timm van der Gugten were just as important to ensure the hosts batted the full allocation of overs despite slow periods towards the back end of the innings.Gloucestershire’s pursuit started in almost identical fashion to the hosts’ innings.Van der Gugten and Jamie McIlroy extracted the same movement as their Gloucestershire counterparts did in the early overs, claiming the wickets of Australian international Cameron Bancroft, Ollie Price and Miles Hammond for just 44.It came down to Bracey’s excellence to keep the visitors in the contest. As Kellaway did for Glamorgan, the former England keeper’s solo brilliance looked to take the game away from Glamorgan.Glamorgan thought they would’ve not had luck on their side as a matter of millimetres separated a Bracey skier off Douthwaite and Tribe at deep square leg while on 61 and the score 99 for 4.When Charlesworth and Taylor both departed for supportive innings of 14 each, Graeme van Buuren attacked as the required run rate crept above seven before three fours and a six took the pressure off Bracey in their quickfire 41-run partnership, leaving just 31 to get from the final six overs.As the pendulum swung in the space of 11 balls from Douthwaite and Gorvin, the match slipped away from Gloucestershire to take them to the wrong side of another derby thriller after moments of brilliance saved the game in both County Championship and Blast affairs in 2024.

Captain says team can become best fielding side in Asia after outperforming world champions

Mohammad Isam14-Mar-2023More specialist bowlers than batters in the playing XI, and a better fielding display than England could manage, gave Bangladesh the decisive edge in the 3-0 T20I series win, according to their victorious captain, Shakib Al Hasan. The home side completed their whitewash with a 16-run victory in the third game, after engineering a mid-innings batting collapse and then squeezing England’s runs in the final five overs.Similar bowling displays had been instrumental to Bangladesh’s wins in the first two T20Is too. Hasan Mahmud bowled two great overs in the end of England’s innings in the first game in Chattogram, which enabled Bangladesh to chase a moderate 157. In the second game, England collapsed twice in the middle overs to be outplayed in the four-wicket defeat.Shakib said that, instead of playing eight batters, they chose to have a cushion of bowling options. In the third game, that bowling depth came in handy in the latter part of the innings when both Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan fell in the 14th over; Mustafizur Rahman removed Malan while Buttler was run out next ball. Mehidy’s direct hit highlighted the fielding effort which saw marked improvement in their ground fielding and catching.”Our bowling unit was quite good in this series,” Shakib said. “We never had the luxury of playing with six proper bowlers as we often played with eight batters. We were always a bowler short. In T20s, you need that [bowling] cushion. Bowlers win you T20 matches, so having that extra bowler was helpful. We have a few more areas for tuning, thinking ahead to the next World Cup, but we have made a good start. I think the turning point of the match was that over. They lost both their set batters in successive balls. It proved to be decisive.”Everyone noticed our fielding in these three matches. We out-fielded England, who are themselves a good fielding side. It is a big tick mark. Our biggest improvement is in our fielding, when I consider every aspect. We should always field well, but we have targeted to become the best fielding side in Asia. After this performance, I don’t think we are too far behind.”Shakib praised the way Litton Das came back into form, as the opener made a career-best 73 in quick time. He added 84 runs for the second wicket stand with the player of the series, Najmul Hossain Shanto, with the pair’s running between the wickets particularly impressing the captain.”We didn’t know how much runs were enough on this pitch. So we were very open-minded,” Shakib said. “We first thought 140 was a good score. Then we got to a stage when we thought 170-180 would be our total. We didn’t get many runs in the last five overs, but we batted well in the powerplay and middle-overs.”They have seven or eight proper bowlers so we had to struggle at least once in the innings,” he added. “The way Rony and Litton started, and then Shanto and Litton build the innings, especially their running between the wickets, it was outstanding. The way they turned ones into twos and twos into threes, it put England under pressure.”Related

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Bangladesh’s sudden upswing in the T20I format had a lot to do with its proximity to the BPL, and the selectors’ willingness to pick the best performers from a tournament that ended only three weeks before the series. “Everyone in this team performed in this year’s BPL,” Shakib said. “It wasn’t too long ago before the England tour. The top five-six batters in this series were also the top run-getters in BPL. It is the same for the highest wicket-takers. The confidence did carry over, so I think that really helped us.”Shakib also told the long-term story of how this team gained confidence in T20Is. He believes it goes back to the Asia Cup last year when he took over the captaincy, but the real belief that they can win against major teams came in the T20 World Cup when Bangladesh won two matches for the first time in their history.”I have been leading the team since the Asia Cup last year,” he said. “We didn’t win a match there, but I thought we played good cricket. We were unfortunate not to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. We were one win away from that achievement. We had a lot of doubt before the tournament, but the belief that we can compete with bigger teams started from the World Cup.”England’s lack of batting depth also played a hand in their success as Bangladesh knew that three or four wickets would bring them to the lower-order. “We had more confidence before this series, since we were playing at home,” Shakib added. “We capitalised on England being short of batters. It was our advantage that they didn’t have many batters after losing three or four wickets.”