00:00Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Straight Bad with Gulf News and Mr. Cricket UAE. That
00:13is Anil Sajan. Anil Sajan is not with us today, but we have Sahil Sajan Institute. He is an
00:17equally huge cricket enthusiast, so we will get his input. We also have Satish Das, a
00:23sports editor of Gulf News with us, and we will discuss Bangladesh and Sri Lanka match
00:28and what a thrilling win for Sri Lanka. Satish, your thoughts on the match?
00:35Shyam, it's a pretty good, thrilling game. But what has happened is, after seeing both
00:41Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the way we have seen them over the years, I could see that
00:46the standards have dropped and there are some basic elementary mistakes which both teams are
00:51making. But yes, nevertheless, both teams are in the process of rebuilding and a lot of new
00:56players are coming in. So in that sense, yes. But again, if they have to do well in the Super 4,
01:04then I'm sure they have to do a lot of work, especially for Sri Lanka, because they have
01:10entered the Super 4, whereas Bangladesh have been on the losing streak. They lost to Zimbabwe.
01:17Some basic mistakes, like today, if you look at, there were four no balls in the T20 game.
01:22So that's actually, you can't justify that. So these are some of the basic stuff which they
01:30have been making, mistakes they have been making. But let's hope they come back and be the strong team
01:35that they were in the past. Sahil, do you agree with Satish there? Yeah, absolutely. No balls are not
01:40accepted in any form of the game. Yes, in this T20 game, when you get a no ball, it's like a gift,
01:45you can say. But this game, I really, really enjoyed watching. It was one of the fun games to watch
01:51as a neutral fan. So, but yes, I can also agree on the fact that, you know, how the standards have
01:57fallen. Like, you know, Bangladesh, what they've done in Zimbabwe, they lost. They lost both their
02:01games to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. And also for Sri Lanka, they were also not playing the best of
02:06cricket. Yes, 183, not an easy target, but they did it with the help of some poor Bangladeshi
02:12bowling. But really, you have to give credit to the tailenders, like the way they batted with
02:16Fearless, like when they needed eight runs in the last over. He did that. Tailender didn't even
02:21think twice. Fearlessly, he was attacking the spinner. So, it was so fun to watch. I completely
02:28agree with you guys there on the part of the extras. Because extras accounted for 17 runs.
02:34See, out of 184, 17 runs is a lot when it's such a close game. I mean, that actually
02:42talks about the dip in standards. Like, you totally, really, really agree there. And
02:47let's look at the team-wise. I mean, Bangladesh made three changes and especially
02:52Abaduddin Hussain's, the move to bring in Abaduddin Hussain was very good, I thought.
02:58How was he, Satish? He was quick. He bowled quite well in the initial stages. But I think
03:07under pressure, he lost his cool and he gave away 17 runs in the 19th over. So,
03:13but again, it again talks about the experience that comes with playing a lot of matches.
03:22But he's a good, quick bowler who can do a good job for Bangladesh. But again, he's not young
03:33as such. Like, he is 28.
03:37Why ask specifically? Because he was instrumental in Bangladesh's test win in New Zealand.
03:45Correct. Correct. And no, but again, it looks like he is more of the classical bowler type
03:52because he has played one day air and one T20 game so far. Probably this is his second. So,
03:59that lack of experience has showed in the last couple of overs. But again, whichever format you
04:05play, you've got to keep the basics right. So, no ball. I think he was guilty of bowling no ball,
04:12not just even earlier. So, I'm sure the team management and the bowling coaches
04:20will be looking at it and rectifying it over a period of time.
04:24Sahil, coming back to you quickly. Actually, Bangladesh didn't do badly because they batted
04:30very well. We have at least four to five people contributing very well. Mehdi Hassan contributed
04:3538. Shakib Al-Hassan, 24. Afif Hossain is 39. Mahmud Ullah is 27. And Mossadegh, 24. Five
04:42people contributed in good measure. That is a far improved performance from the previous match.
04:47Absolutely. In the T20 format, you have to expect everyone to perform. Not only
04:55openers or you're number three or number four. Everyone came up with the goods. Mossadegh in
04:59the end scored 24 of nine balls, which is a huge deal. Unfortunately, yes, they still couldn't
05:04defend that target. But you've got to give credit to them for their batting style. They all
05:09contributed well. But in the end, yes, their bowling let them down. And again, you see the
05:15standards have gone so down that these small, small mistakes have to be rectified from both
05:19teams, be it Bangladesh or be it Sri Lanka. Okay, we keep harping about the bowling part
05:26of Bangladesh. Where exactly did it go wrong for Bangladesh, Sadesh? The bowlers part of it?
05:35Shyam, you can't really pin down that. I would say if there is any particular
05:45time when they should have bowled slightly better is when Shanaka came in and when Mendes was
05:51batting. I think they gave away a lot of freebies at that point of time, probably bowling to the
05:56legs and giving away some free deliveries. I didn't see too many yorkers. I didn't see
06:05pretty close balls. I didn't see… This is a wicket where you can't bowl the slow,
06:10or short balls where the ball will nicely sit up and you can hit the ball. So,
06:16they didn't read the wicket well. They should have bowled more closely up front,
06:21close to almost where the Bumrah style of bowling, yorker lengths. I didn't see too many
06:25deliveries. Bangladesh bases are bowling. So, that's where they missed the trick. That is,
06:31despite Sri Lankan batters giving away their wickets. And there was another one which I would
06:39say where it went wrong was that Mendes had three chances. One early in the innings where
06:47Mushfiqar dropped one. That was a pretty hard chance. But the second one was another low ball
06:52that where he was out, but he was called back. And then the third was, there was a clear edge
06:58when he played the hook and they had two reviews and they didn't use one. And these are some of
07:04the things that an international side can't make these mistakes. And expect to win.
07:10Elementary, I wouldn't be there. Yeah. And also, another thing I noticed there was also
07:15that there are far too many extras given away and see that eases the pressure on the batsmen
07:21because the runs are coming in. So, that actually is the kind of deflates the whole thing. And one
07:27of the things which in the lead up to the match, both sides said that whoever does well in the
07:33power play will win the match. But let's look at how they have fared in the power play. Bangladesh
07:38scored 55 for 1 in 6 overs. And Sri Lanka, 48 for 2. Not too much difference or just an advantage
07:48of 6, 7 runs and 1 wicket. Yeah, not too much of a separation. So, how did the power play matter,
07:59Sahil? I mean, see, now the T20 game has evolved so much. Like, the power play matters the most
08:04in my eye. Like, you know how the English players have changed that mentality. Like, in T20 here,
08:09you go bang, bang, bang. You know, the Roys and the Bastos. You know how they changed that
08:13mentality. It is now very, very important, the power play. And the way England cricket team
08:18had set the example, a lot of teams are trying to follow it. Even India have said it also that
08:23they want to follow that bang, bang approach. You call it the fearless approach. Fearless approach, yes.
08:30So, clearly, India still have not been used to that. You can see it in the first two games.
08:35But yes, the power play now for me in this format in T20, like in this particular generation,
08:41the power play, the 6 overs, you have to attack. All right, that apart. Satish,
08:48anything you specifically noticed in today's game before we look at tomorrow's game?
08:56Nothing, Shyam.
08:57Basically, where do these teams go from here? Now, it's curtains for Bangladesh. Sri Lanka,
09:02what do you think of the prospects in the Super Bowl?
09:05The prospects are, I would say, quite bleak. Because the number of numerous errors that they
09:10made, they should actually rectify them. And just imagine, Bangladesh bowled four no-balls
09:18and eight-whites, which means 12 balls, 12 extra runs, plus there are another four free hits.
09:25So, despite all those larges, they still managed to win the match in the last over.
09:30They need to play a tight game, which they call it. And secondly, you need to know,
09:38you can't be always aggressive. Yes, a bang-bang game is… Yes. But you need to play to the
09:43situation. You can't go and hit the ball, every ball, and keep losing wickets at regular intervals,
09:49which puts a big pressure on the batters who are coming in. And Sri Lanka, though they batted deep,
09:55and then up to Karunaratne, they scored some runs. But still, that was more because of
10:02Bangladesh bad bowling than anybody else. So, a good team would pin them down very badly. So,
10:07they need to be very clear about that. Okay. That's it. Now, let's look at tomorrow's game,
10:13that is Pakistan versus Hong Kong. I'm not going to ask you who's going to win.
10:17That would be a futile exercise. So, but all in all, Pakistan looks poised to make the Super 4
10:24at the expense of Hong Kong. It's a question of what will be the margin of defeat. Although,
10:30in a 2020 game, it's foolhardy to make a prediction. But I think if Hong Kong
10:38upsets Pakistan, that would be a real, real shock result. But let's wait and see what
10:44happens tomorrow. And that is it from us today. Thank you very much for watching us. For all the
10:51latest updates and developments, please log on to gulfnews.com and all our social media channels.
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