সোমবার, ২৮ ডিসেম্বর, ২০০৯

We kept making the same mistakes: Siddons

Mr. Mohammed Ashraful, Captain and Mr. Masrafe Bin Mortaza, Vice Captain at the Zia International Airport prior to their departure on 24th May 2009 for ICC Twenty/20 World Cup 2009 in England

NOTTINGHAM : Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons and captain Mohammad Ashraful at the post-match media conference after the Tigers had bowed out of the ICC World Twenty20 with a 6-wicket loss to Ireland today:

JAMIE SIDDONS

What he thinks as the reason behind the defeat
There were some stupid mental errors by our batsmen. There was some ridiculous batting. It started right from the top. The opening batsmen had to be aggressive but they knew that the Irish bowlers bowled some good slower balls early in the innings but they made the same mistakes. This went right the way through. Tamim Iqbal has got run out like that a few times on this tour, Shakib Al Hasan has got out like that about five times on this tour, same shot, same spot. These are just mental errors. Their skill level is as good as anyone but I am on the borderline of being disappointed and angry. There's nothing we can do if they keep making mental errors like that and the same mistakes over and over. We train and we talk about it and we do everything we possibly can.
Even Ash (Ashraful) made the same mistake. He hit the ball in the same area after getting dropped in the previous over, as if to say catch me this time. It goes down the list. Five, six maybe seven batsmen got out to ridiculous shots.

Whether Bangladesh had succumbed to pressure
I think the cooler heads prevail. It is as simple as that. More senior cricketers, not in terms of international exposure but those who have been around a while, tend to stay cool under pressure. Our guys again under pressure were not up to it. They just needed to make the correct decisions under I won't say a great deal of pressure because Ireland, who are a good side, are not as good as most sides we play against.

Where do the Tigers go from here
All along at the back of my mind has been the West Indies tour and how we can compete and put them under pressure. We got to the West Indies next and that's where we need to show that we are an improved side. Twenty20 cricket is a lot of fun and it's all over in two-three overs. You play two or three bad shots you lose the game and on the other side of the coin two or three good shots can win you a game. Now we are back to 50 over cricket and Test cricket and we have to play a lot better than we did today.

Whether not playing to plan had become habitual
To win the game you need to score 160 if you are batting first. That is the pass score. Ideally we wanted to make 180 but we had a back-up plan where we would scrape to 160. We had a reasonable start and were 40-odd in the first six overs and we were on course for 150 but the batsmen kept disobeying the plan and we ended up with a score of 137. Anyone can get those.
It's not cultural. Our boys tend to get things there way a lot and they don't listen that well and it is time some pressure is put on them to listen, from the captain down.

How Bangladesh should take this tournament
It's Twenty20 and Ireland played well and beat us but we are a better team than they are. Any team can win here like Holland beating England. But we have had some good form lately and I'm sure we will continue to improve. I am looking forward to that tour against the West Indies.

His message to the fans after the World Twenty20 disappointment
I can aplogise for it but I want the players to do that if they think that they have made mistakes. Give some credit to Ireland also. They are a good cricket team. We are coming through the ranks and we should be pushing Ireland aside really and pushing teams like the West Indies. It is a disappointing loss no doubt. We should have gone to the Super Eight. I have no excuses. We were well prepared. We came here nice and early and that's the lowest score we have made on the whole tour.

MOHAMMAD ASHRAFUL

The turning points
I believe losing five wickets inside the first 10 overs. Also, like the coach said, we did not play according to the plan and our shot selection was very poor.

The difference in the match
Ireland today were better than us in all three departments. Our batting effort was poor and we never had enough runs to put them under pressure. This is the worst we have played since arriving in England.

Whether the team felt any pressure against the minnows
Not really. We knew that if we did our process right then we would beat Ireland. Unfortunately all of us top order batsmen were guilty of some very bad cricket.

If Masrafe Bin Mortaza or Naeem Islam could have been sent up the order to boost the run rate
We had thought about that option but with so many wickets going down early we had to decide against that.

The Bangladesh team will depart England at 2:35pm local time (7:35pm Bangladesh Standard Time) on Tuesday. The squad is expected to reach Dhaka at 8:30am on Wednesday.

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