‘We need a better plan’

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto rued poor planning and not putting enough runs on the board after getting drubbed by India by seven wickets in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium in Gwalior yesterday.

Sent to bat, the Tigers could put up a measly 127 before getting bundled out in the last ball of their allotted 20 overs with Mehedi Hasan Miraz being the only batter go past the 30-run mark, remaining unbeaten on 35 off 32 balls.

The Bangladesh innings never got going as they lost openers Liton Das (four off two balls) and Parvez Hossain Emon (eight off nine balls) inside the Powerplay, which yielded just 39 runs.

Highly rated youngster Towhid Hridoy then crumbled under the pressure of dot balls, holing out to long-on against Varun Chakravarthy after playing out a maiden in the previous over from speedster Mayank Yadav.

After Hridoy departed for 12 off 18 balls, leaving Bangladesh down to 40-3, it was time to show some caution.

The experienced Mahmudullah should have been the ideal man for the job but the veteran instead charged down the wicket against Yadav in the following over and sliced the ball to Washington Sundar at deep point, getting out for one off two.

Shanto said that the poor start at the Powerplay and the overzealous approach from the batters were the main reasons behind the abysmal batting display.

"We didn't start well. In T20s, the first six overs are very important but we didn't start well," Shanto, who made 27 off 25 balls, said after the match.

"The plan was to play positive cricket and play with intent from the first ball but we had to manage some overs. We need a better plan for the next matches."

Shanto also said that the failure to rotate the strike also hurt the team as out of the 120 legal deliveries in the Bangladesh innings, 50 were dot balls.

"We need to focus on rotating the strike, T20 is not only about hitting. If we keep wickets in hand, we can get a good score."

The Bangladesh bowlers hardly tested the Indian batter, who cruised to the target with 49 balls to spare.

Still, Shanto did not blame the bowlers, saying, "It's very hard for the bowlers on a pitch like this. We needed more runs. But I think Rishad [Hossain] bowled well and Mustrafizur [Rahman] as well."