Mashrafe blames dew for Bangladesh spinners' failure to stop England taking ODI series

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza believes the dew factor in the second innings made the difference for them in the final ODI against England.

Sports Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 Oct 2016, 07:26 PM
Updated : 12 Oct 2016, 08:26 PM

He thinks Bangladesh were unlucky as the tourists won the toss and decided to bat under the lights. It meant the Tigers suffered their first ODI series defeat in more than two years.

The ball gripped the surface of the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong in daytime, producing big spins for Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali to make life difficult for the batsmen.

Bangladesh bowlers, however, fared differently in the evening when the ball seemed to be skidding through without much turn. It came on to the bat making it easier for the English batsmen to play their strokes.

"Dew fell on the track today and the spinners could not produce any turn later. Their [the England batsmen's] job became much easier, where it was supposed to be pretty difficult," Mashrafe said in the post-match press conference.

"I'm sure that if the amount of dew that had fallen was even half, the 278 chase could have been completely different. The highest chase here was 239 but England chased down 277 easily."

Bangladesh's total, however, had looked sufficient for their bowlers to defend.

"277 seemed more than enough at the innings break. It seemed on this wicket it's a total equivalent to a score of more than 300.

"The amount of turn Adil Rashid, even Moeen was producing and with the number of spinners we have, it could have been a perfect match for us if the dew was not there."

Bangladesh, who had lost their last ODI series in West Indies in August 2014, came into the series on the back of a series-winning streak of six, including ones against India, Pakistan and South Africa.

The conditions on Wednesday reminded Mashrafe of their series decider against South Africa last year, where they chased down 168 in just 26.1 overs.

"In the last match against South Africa last year, the spinners got big turns and later the ball nicely came on to the bat," Mashrafe said.

"England played well, congratulations to them. But we were very unlucky that our spinners did not get the right conditions like theirs did," he added.

While batting, Bangladesh often looked good for a total in excess of 300 but only a half-century from Mushfiqur Rahim and two other 40-plus scores restricted them to the total.

But Mashrafe insisted spin was the key to winning the match.

"There was a chance of going past 300, still, the difference had to be made with spin. Our spinners did not get turn, so we had to make do with pacers.

"We simply felt their spinners exploited 110 percent of the wicket and our spinners - just 10 percent. That became the difference."

The teams will now gear up for two Tests - one in Chittagong and the other in Dhaka.