Little time to reflect ahead of changes in plans

Bangladesh have little time to ponder about what transpired against the Proteas in Sydney yesterday, when they slumped to a heavy 104-run loss.

While their confidence certainly took a hit, skipper Shakib Al Hasan signalled that some changes in plans were in the offing and admitted the bowlers did not have enough going for them once Rilee Rossouw became set at the crease.

Rossouw hit the first ton of this T20 World Cup, using his knowledge of the Bangladesh players, gathered in the Bangladesh Premier League and by virtue of scoring tons of runs over the years, to great effect during a 56-ball 109.

But Shakib and Co. will have a quick turnaround and must turn focus to their fixture against Zimbabwe at Brisbane on Sunday.

The Sydney Cricket Ground usually has something for spinners, so Bangladesh picked Mehedi Hasan Miraz in the line-up, counting on the match-up against four left-handed batters.

That match-up did not hold water and their plans with pace did not materialize, especially with the smaller boundaries on the side proving difficult to manage given the South Africa batters' explosiveness.

"We had some plans for Rilee, especially with our fast bowlers. I think this time we didn't bowl the deliveries that we wanted to bowl. Once a batter is set in T20s, knowing how dangerous he [Rilee] can be, he showed exactly what he can do. We don't have much chance to reflect on the game. Credit goes to Rilee and Quinton de Kock (63 off 38 balls). Their partnership took the game away from us," Shakib said of the 168-run second-wicket stand.

Shakib stressed that his side should not dwell on the result.

"It feels bad when you lose. And when you lose by this big a margin, it feels even worse. But we can't forget that we have an important match in two days. So we have to focus on that and maybe we will have to change our plan quite a bit, adjusting to the conditions and the opponent," he said.

Batting coach Jamie Siddons had previously said that 200 was not needed in the conditions at play in Australia. But although Bangladesh kept South Africa to just 34 runs in the last five overs, the Proteas racked up 205 for five.

Shakib added that the Tigers probably lacked the belief necessary to chase such a score.

"One aspect is belief regarding, whether we truly feel we can chase down a big score. Even in domestic cricket, we don't win matches by chasing big scores. Maybe there is a deficiency there. If you watched Australia's match against New Zealand, Australia collapsed after New Zealand put up 200," he said.

"Maybe we weren't prepared to chase 200. We believe that we can restrict any team to 170-180 on a good wicket with our bowling attack. which makes it a completely different game. We fell behind because we didn't get wickets after the first over."

The bowling was yet to be a worry despite lacking execution up front, but a better effort with the bat would have been beneficial to the net run rate and also given confidence. Shakib echoed similar sentiments. "When we were at 27 for no loss after two overs, you expect the team to carry on. Even if we didn't win, we could at least put on a good batting display," he said, knowing full well that better performances will be crucial in the next matches.