DHAKA, July 3, 2019 (BSS) – Mashrafe Bin Mortaza won the toss in just two matches in the seven games Bangladesh played in this World Cup, a factor didn’t go in favour of his side as England’s pitch showed the tendency to assist the teams who bats first.
In the crucial match against India, where the game was played in a used pitch, Bangladesh badly wanted to bat first, knowing that the pitch will be increasingly slower here to make batting a difficult task.
But the lady luck didn’t favour him as he lost the important toss. It was something that Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes also pointed out.
”Yeah, I think, in the defense of some of the batsmen, the toss was crucial. You saw there, as you saw in the England match, that the cutters and the slower balls were quite difficult,” Rhodes told reporters after the match.
”When you get out to a slower ball and you chip it up into the ring, it looks a really soft dismissal, but sometimes you’ve got to give credit for the bowlers for deceiving the batsman and also sometimes the wicket. The wicket obviously proved to be a little bit more difficult in the second innings,” he said.
Bangladesh eventually lost the match to India by 28 runs, being all out for 286 in 48 overs, after India put up a challenging 314-9.
In the previous match against Afghanistan too, Mashrafe lost the toss but to his delight Afghanistan opted to field first in a pitch which was also used following a match between India and Afghanistan.
Bangladesh put up 268 in that match, an average total but defended it well, using the slowness of the pitch to bundle Afghanistan out for 206. Earlier India also defended 224 runs, wrapping up Afghanistan for 213.
In Edgbaston where India vs England match was held, the former got the heat of batting second and from the first hand experience they wanted to bat first. And they duly got the chance as Mashrafe’s bad luck in winning toss continued.