Gulf News experts analyse the areas Sri Lanka need to improve for the Super 4
Sri Lana won a thrilling Group B clash against Bangladesh in a match that swung both ways until the islanders clinched it with two wickets to spare. At one stage it was Bangladesh's game to lose, especially in the final overs. But they floundered and allowed Sri Lanka escape to victory. Where did Bangladesh go wrong and what are areas Sri Lanka need to address, Gulf News experts analyse.
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/sport/cricket/icc/asia-cup-2022-sri-lanka-down-bangladesh-by-two-wickets-to-enter-super-4-1.1662041578860
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Sri Lana won a thrilling Group B clash against Bangladesh in a match that swung both ways until the islanders clinched it with two wickets to spare. At one stage it was Bangladesh's game to lose, especially in the final overs. But they floundered and allowed Sri Lanka escape to victory. Where did Bangladesh go wrong and what are areas Sri Lanka need to address, Gulf News experts analyse.
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/sport/cricket/icc/asia-cup-2022-sri-lanka-down-bangladesh-by-two-wickets-to-enter-super-4-1.1662041578860
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #cricketnews #asiacup2022
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00:00Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Straight Bad with Gulf News and Mr. Cricket UAE. That
00:13is Anil Sajan. Anil Sajan is not with us today, but we have Sahil Sajan Institute. He is an
00:17equally huge cricket enthusiast, so we will get his input. We also have Satish Das, a
00:23sports editor of Gulf News with us, and we will discuss Bangladesh and Sri Lanka match
00:28and what a thrilling win for Sri Lanka. Satish, your thoughts on the match?
00:35Shyam, it's a pretty good, thrilling game. But what has happened is, after seeing both
00:41Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the way we have seen them over the years, I could see that
00:46the standards have dropped and there are some basic elementary mistakes which both teams are
00:51making. But yes, nevertheless, both teams are in the process of rebuilding and a lot of new
00:56players are coming in. So in that sense, yes. But again, if they have to do well in the Super 4,
01:04then I'm sure they have to do a lot of work, especially for Sri Lanka, because they have
01:10entered the Super 4, whereas Bangladesh have been on the losing streak. They lost to Zimbabwe.
01:17Some basic mistakes, like today, if you look at, there were four no balls in the T20 game.
01:22So that's actually, you can't justify that. So these are some of the basic stuff which they
01:30have been making, mistakes they have been making. But let's hope they come back and be the strong team
01:35that they were in the past. Sahil, do you agree with Satish there? Yeah, absolutely. No balls are not
01:40accepted in any form of the game. Yes, in this T20 game, when you get a no ball, it's like a gift,
01:45you can say. But this game, I really, really enjoyed watching. It was one of the fun games to watch
01:51as a neutral fan. So, but yes, I can also agree on the fact that, you know, how the standards have
01:57fallen. Like, you know, Bangladesh, what they've done in Zimbabwe, they lost. They lost both their
02:01games to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. And also for Sri Lanka, they were also not playing the best of
02:06cricket. Yes, 183, not an easy target, but they did it with the help of some poor Bangladeshi
02:12bowling. But really, you have to give credit to the tailenders, like the way they batted with
02:16Fearless, like when they needed eight runs in the last over. He did that. Tailender didn't even
02:21think twice. Fearlessly, he was attacking the spinner. So, it was so fun to watch. I completely
02:28agree with you guys there on the part of the extras. Because extras accounted for 17 runs.
02:34See, out of 184, 17 runs is a lot when it's such a close game. I mean, that actually
02:42talks about the dip in standards. Like, you totally, really, really agree there. And
02:47let's look at the team-wise. I mean, Bangladesh made three changes and especially
02:52Abaduddin Hussain's, the move to bring in Abaduddin Hussain was very good, I thought.
02:58How was he, Satish? He was quick. He bowled quite well in the initial stages. But I think
03:07under pressure, he lost his cool and he gave away 17 runs in the 19th over. So,
03:13but again, it again talks about the experience that comes with playing a lot of matches.
03:22But he's a good, quick bowler who can do a good job for Bangladesh. But again, he's not young
03:33as such. Like, he is 28.
03:37Why ask specifically? Because he was instrumental in Bangladesh's test win in New Zealand.
03:45Correct. Correct. And no, but again, it looks like he is more of the classical bowler type
03:52because he has played one day air and one T20 game so far. Probably this is his second. So,
03:59that lack of experience has showed in the last couple of overs. But again, whichever format you
04:05play, you've got to keep the basics right. So, no ball. I think he was guilty of bowling no ball,
04:12not just even earlier. So, I'm sure the team management and the bowling coaches
04:20will be looking at it and rectifying it over a period of time.
04:24Sahil, coming back to you quickly. Actually, Bangladesh didn't do badly because they batted
04:30very well. We have at least four to five people contributing very well. Mehdi Hassan contributed
04:3538. Shakib Al-Hassan, 24. Afif Hossain is 39. Mahmud Ullah is 27. And Mossadegh, 24. Five
04:42people contributed in good measure. That is a far improved performance from the previous match.
04:47Absolutely. In the T20 format, you have to expect everyone to perform. Not only
04:55openers or you're number three or number four. Everyone came up with the goods. Mossadegh in
04:59the end scored 24 of nine balls, which is a huge deal. Unfortunately, yes, they still couldn't
05:04defend that target. But you've got to give credit to them for their batting style. They all
05:09contributed well. But in the end, yes, their bowling let them down. And again, you see the
05:15standards have gone so down that these small, small mistakes have to be rectified from both
05:19teams, be it Bangladesh or be it Sri Lanka. Okay, we keep harping about the bowling part
05:26of Bangladesh. Where exactly did it go wrong for Bangladesh, Sadesh? The bowlers part of it?
05:35Shyam, you can't really pin down that. I would say if there is any particular
05:45time when they should have bowled slightly better is when Shanaka came in and when Mendes was
05:51batting. I think they gave away a lot of freebies at that point of time, probably bowling to the
05:56legs and giving away some free deliveries. I didn't see too many yorkers. I didn't see
06:05pretty close balls. I didn't see… This is a wicket where you can't bowl the slow,
06:10or short balls where the ball will nicely sit up and you can hit the ball. So,
06:16they didn't read the wicket well. They should have bowled more closely up front,
06:21close to almost where the Bumrah style of bowling, yorker lengths. I didn't see too many
06:25deliveries. Bangladesh bases are bowling. So, that's where they missed the trick. That is,
06:31despite Sri Lankan batters giving away their wickets. And there was another one which I would
06:39say where it went wrong was that Mendes had three chances. One early in the innings where
06:47Mushfiqar dropped one. That was a pretty hard chance. But the second one was another low ball
06:52that where he was out, but he was called back. And then the third was, there was a clear edge
06:58when he played the hook and they had two reviews and they didn't use one. And these are some of
07:04the things that an international side can't make these mistakes. And expect to win.
07:10Elementary, I wouldn't be there. Yeah. And also, another thing I noticed there was also
07:15that there are far too many extras given away and see that eases the pressure on the batsmen
07:21because the runs are coming in. So, that actually is the kind of deflates the whole thing. And one
07:27of the things which in the lead up to the match, both sides said that whoever does well in the
07:33power play will win the match. But let's look at how they have fared in the power play. Bangladesh
07:38scored 55 for 1 in 6 overs. And Sri Lanka, 48 for 2. Not too much difference or just an advantage
07:48of 6, 7 runs and 1 wicket. Yeah, not too much of a separation. So, how did the power play matter,
07:59Sahil? I mean, see, now the T20 game has evolved so much. Like, the power play matters the most
08:04in my eye. Like, you know how the English players have changed that mentality. Like, in T20 here,
08:09you go bang, bang, bang. You know, the Roys and the Bastos. You know how they changed that
08:13mentality. It is now very, very important, the power play. And the way England cricket team
08:18had set the example, a lot of teams are trying to follow it. Even India have said it also that
08:23they want to follow that bang, bang approach. You call it the fearless approach. Fearless approach, yes.
08:30So, clearly, India still have not been used to that. You can see it in the first two games.
08:35But yes, the power play now for me in this format in T20, like in this particular generation,
08:41the power play, the 6 overs, you have to attack. All right, that apart. Satish,
08:48anything you specifically noticed in today's game before we look at tomorrow's game?
08:56Nothing, Shyam.
08:57Basically, where do these teams go from here? Now, it's curtains for Bangladesh. Sri Lanka,
09:02what do you think of the prospects in the Super Bowl?
09:05The prospects are, I would say, quite bleak. Because the number of numerous errors that they
09:10made, they should actually rectify them. And just imagine, Bangladesh bowled four no-balls
09:18and eight-whites, which means 12 balls, 12 extra runs, plus there are another four free hits.
09:25So, despite all those larges, they still managed to win the match in the last over.
09:30They need to play a tight game, which they call it. And secondly, you need to know,
09:38you can't be always aggressive. Yes, a bang-bang game is… Yes. But you need to play to the
09:43situation. You can't go and hit the ball, every ball, and keep losing wickets at regular intervals,
09:49which puts a big pressure on the batters who are coming in. And Sri Lanka, though they batted deep,
09:55and then up to Karunaratne, they scored some runs. But still, that was more because of
10:02Bangladesh bad bowling than anybody else. So, a good team would pin them down very badly. So,
10:07they need to be very clear about that. Okay. That's it. Now, let's look at tomorrow's game,
10:13that is Pakistan versus Hong Kong. I'm not going to ask you who's going to win.
10:17That would be a futile exercise. So, but all in all, Pakistan looks poised to make the Super 4
10:24at the expense of Hong Kong. It's a question of what will be the margin of defeat. Although,
10:30in a 2020 game, it's foolhardy to make a prediction. But I think if Hong Kong
10:38upsets Pakistan, that would be a real, real shock result. But let's wait and see what
10:44happens tomorrow. And that is it from us today. Thank you very much for watching us. For all the
10:51latest updates and developments, please log on to gulfnews.com and all our social media channels.