Recently, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the ODI captain of Bangladesh, called attention to the lack of solid partnerships. He reiterated that this was the major reason behind his team’s brutal defeat by 99 runs in the third ODI against Sri Lanka.
The match was held in Pallekele, where the visitors failed to chase a 286-run target and eventually lost the series by 2-1.
Lack of Partnership Between Bangladesh Batters: Mehidy Hasan Accepts the Truth
Adding to his statement, Mehidy explained that players of Sri Lanka, Kusal Mendis and the captain, Charith Asalanka, managed to bring in the crucial 124-run stand for the 4th wicket. This partnership between these two players has recovered the team from early trouble.
Referring to the drawback, the Bangladeshi captain accepted the fault that they failed to build this kind of partnership, which could have strengthened their chase.
Here is what Bangladesh’s skipper had to say about his team’s batting performance: “YES! When Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali batted together, we all had that ray of hope that the game was in our control, and we could win it. But the only lacking point I felt was just we couldn’t make the solid partnership work like how Sri Lanka did.
Although we could restrict our opponents to 100 runs by taking three wickets, they still managed to score a great score. Usually, the partnerships in the middle overs are very important, and although we got a couple of 40s, still, the winning factor is difficult without the strong partnerships in ODI cricket,” Mehidy Hasan said.
Sri Lanka’s 124-run Partnership that took away the game from Bangladesh
At the end of the 21st over in the first innings, Bangladesh had effectively restricted Sri Lanka to 3/100. But that was only before Kusal Mendis and Charith Asalanka changed the structure of the match with their strong partnership.
At one stage, the Sri Lankan players were likely aiming for the 300-run milestone in 50 overs. However, Bangladeshi bowlers successfully regained their form in the last 10 overs and restricted their opponents to 285 runs.
Charith Asalanka scored 58 runs from 68 balls (including 9 fours), but he got dismissed in the 41st over. That would not have happened if he had not missed out on a low full toss. But the bowler Taskin Ahmed’s delivery at that particular moment was magical.
On the other hand, Kusal Mendis, who scored 124 runs from 114 balls (including 18 fours), got out in the 46th over, and that was because he tried to top-edge a short ball. Moreover, the delivery led to a straight catch to Shamim Hossain, who successfully caught the ball over his shoulder.
A curse for Bangladesh in ODIs?
For many years, Bangladesh has been undergoing a curse in the ODI history of cricket, and that is the format in which the so-called Tigers stumble upon failure.
When it comes to the other two formats of TEST and T20Is, Bangladesh has always had a success rate. Although their winnings never seemed to be convincing, it was still a success story for them.
Bangladesh’s team made its first-ever debut in cricket through ODIs, whose cricketing journey had highs and lows. It includes attaining the 1997 ICC Trophy (qualification tournament for the 1999 World Cup) to getting qualified for the 2015 World Cup quarterfinals and the 2017 Champions Trophy semifinals.
Recently, the Bangladesh cricket team crashed in their third consecutive bilateral ODI series with a brutal defeat against Sri Lanka.
Mehidy Hasan-led team couldn’t go beyond 186 runs and lost against Sri Lanka in the third and final match, which was held in Pallekele. After they conceded the series by 2-1, the Bangladesh’s curse seems to have increased.
Moreover, this loss didn’t come directly, but had come in following a 2-1 defeat against Afghanistan, held in the UAE last year. Again a month later in the Caribbean, Bangladesh lost with a 3-0 clean sweep against the West Indies.
Mehidy Hasan pushes for Batting Improvements to be made!
After the terrible series loss, Mehidy Hasan accepted that the team didn’t have a proper batting strength. Especially when they are all set, they immediately start getting dismissed one after the other. Moreover, they are pushing themselves hard to strive for the best partnership, like Sri Lanka did.
Mehidy stated that: “See! It is just that we are getting dismissed very soon, that too right after we get set properly. We cannot keep this going for the long run, and we have to seriously work on the batting part.
It’s disappointing that we were not able to bat 50 overs, and our middle order was supposed to take the responsibility.
While I was batting with Towhid Hridoy, we almost caught the right momentum, but then I got out, and the partnership was ruined. It is very important to have the correct strike rotation in a partnership. For that, we will have to maintain and play low-risk cricket; instead, we were playing high-risk cricket,” Hasan Miraz added a few facts.
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Conclusion
After losing the ODI series to Sri Lanka, the Bangladesh cricket team now shifts their focus to their upcoming 3-match T20I series against Pakistan at home on 20th, 22nd, and 24th of July at the Dhaka. This 20-over series serves as a preparation for Bangladesh ahead of the Asia Cup 2025 and the T20 World Cup 2026.
