T20 World Cup 2022: We were almost there, but didn’t finish the line – Shakib Al Hasan after loss against India

Bangladesh was 66-0 after seven overs while chasing 185 against India in the 35th match of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday when the rain came pouring down. The Tigers were 17 runs ahead on the DLS score and rain was expected to help them.

The revised target was 151 in 16 overs and the Men in Green needed 85 runs more off 54 balls with all 10 wickets intact. Litton Das had lit up Adelaide Oval with his blistering batting before the rain had interrupted and he was blazing away.

However, the turning point of the game was when Das was run-out on the second ball after the resumption as KL Rahul hit the bullseye from a distance. From there on, Bangladesh lost five more wickets for adding 40 runs in the next 33 balls.

The Shakib Al Hasan-led team kept losing wickets at regular intervals and Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya bowled two-wicket overs each to turn the match on its head.

Hasan admitted that they were almost there but couldn’t finish the line against the Indian team.

Shakib Al Hasan said in the post-match presentation, “It’s been the story when we play against India, we are almost there but we don’t finish the line. Both teams enjoyed it, it was a great game and that’s what we wanted. At the end someone has to win and someone has to lose. He’s [Litton Das] our best batter going around. The way he batted in the powerplay gave us a lot of momentum and gave us the belief that we could chase this with the short boundaries here.”

The all-rounder also revealed his plan to bowl out Taskin Ahmed in the first seven overs as he wanted to strike early. Ahmed bowled an economical spell as he conceded only 15 runs in his quota of four overs but went wicketless.

Hasan added, “If you look at India’s top four, they are very dangerous. Our plan was to get those 4 and that’s why we bowled Taskin through. Unfortunately, he did not pick wickets but he was very economical. Not much, we have been very relaxed and not talking too much about cricket in this World Cup. We have one more match to go and we want to concentrate on that.”

Bangladesh will next take on Pakistan at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.