Mashrafe mystified by Bangladesh batsmen’s trouble with South African spin

Bangladesh’s limited-overs captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza has no clue why his batsmen are failing to blunt the threat posed by South Africa’s spin attack.

The Proteas completed a clinical T20 series sweep beating the hosts by 31 runs in the second match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
 
The Tigers’ batsmen were put to the sword by South Africa’s second-string bowling attack in both the matches.
 
In the first, Aaron Phangiso and Jean-Paul Duminy returned 3 for 32 in eight overs between them.
 
On Tuesday, Phangiso and debutant legspinner Eddie Liei took three wickets each. Although Duminy went wicketless, he conceded only 26 runs in his four overs.
 
In their last two series against India and Pakistan, the batsmen handled some world-class spinners quite well.
 
But they have been completely dominated by a mediocre Proteas spin attack. Mashrafe had no answer for that in a press conference after the match.
 
“It is difficult to explain. Maybe every batsman can speak for themselves individually. I don’t know why this happened.”
 
“Since I don’t have the answer, I guess, because wicket fell regularly and the target was big, the batsmen were under pressure. Maybe that’s why the batsmen gave away their wickets.”
 
Mashrafe praised the 46-run opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar that set them off to a decent start in their chase of South Africa’s 169 for four.
 
But the failure of the others knocked Bangladesh off course.
 
"We started well with the bat but we couldn't put on partnerships. I think we had problems with our decision-making."
 
The 31-year old criticised the shot selections of his batsmen.
 
“When I say decision-making, I mean shot selection. We could have gone into the last five overs with more batsmen in the shed.
 
“We could have got 60-odd in those overs but that didn't quite happen for us."
 
Apart from brittle batting, Bangladesh were lacklustre in the field as well.
 
They gave away runs cheaply with strings of misfields, that included three let-offs by wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim.
 
The poor show in the field helped South Africa openers AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock build a sturdy foundation for the total.
 
Mashrafe wanted his men to emulate the tourists in all aspects.
 
"They fielded superbly in the last game. We were fine in the first match but we gave away some twos, we had some overthrows.
 
“I won't say fielding is a serious issue but when you play against a unit of that level, you have to push yourself. Then only can you create winning opportunities.”
 
Mashrafe is concerned about South Africa’s aggression.
 
“We should play with cooler heads. They will come hard at us. We are not doing very badly, so we just have to hold on to our mentality, be positive and we can come back quickly."