Bangladesh had to walk into their Asian Games semifinal against Pakistan without a proper understanding of the conditions after spending several days indoors without a match or a practice session on the wicket, captain Litton Das said after their six-wicket defeat on Thursday.
Rain had repeatedly disrupted Bangladesh’s preparations in Japan, leaving the team without a chance to train on the match surface or play a game before the semifinal. They also lost the toss and were sent in to bat in the 13-over-a-side contest at Korogi Sports Park.
“It was never ideal. If you look at it, we had been sitting in our rooms for many days, and then we lost the toss. So we had no option. The wicket was also a little difficult to deal with,” Litton said after the match.
The Bangladesh captain said the lack of exposure to the wicket meant the batters had to figure out the conditions on the go.
“Normally, when a wicket has been under covers for a long time, once you play 20 overs on it, you get an idea about the wicket. We had no such idea because we had not seen a game here in the last few days and did not get the chance to practise on the wicket,” he said.
“So we played the first few overs without really knowing what to expect. Gradually, the batters got an idea.”
Bangladesh lost early wickets after being asked to bat, but Towhid Hridoy’s 42 off 25 balls helped them recover. He added 55 with Mosaddek Hossain as Bangladesh posted 111 for seven in 13 overs.
Litton felt the circumstances made it difficult to expect an immediate standout batting performance, while crediting Hridoy and Mosaddek for rebuilding the innings.
“It is not easy to sit around for so long and then come out and play an extraordinary innings straight away. It would have been better if we had played well, but credit goes to Hridoy for bringing us back from that position. The partnership between Mosaddek and Hridoy was also very good,” he said.
