Bangladesh spin coach Sunil Joshi stressed on the needs to get better at chasing big totals as this World Cup is considered to be a run-fest if the practice games are taken into the consideration.
Apart from just couple of matches, most of the games produced 300 above score while West Indies managed 421 against New Zealand. The Kiwis lost the match by 91 runs after scoring 330, in pursuit of 422.
India racked up 359-7 against Bangladesh thanks to century from KL Rahul and MS Dhoni. This was particularly harsh for the Tigers as they kept India tied, utilizing the early moisture of the wicket. However once the pitch go easier, India batsmen tore apart Bangladeshi bowlers to bury them under huge total.
Bangladesh also was expected to score more than 300 to prove the rest of the world that they are capable to adjusting with the power cricket but to the fans dismay, they were bowled out for 264, conceding a 95-run defeat.
Bangladesh, who made their debut at the World Cup when England last hosted in 1999, arrived on the back of a morale-boosting three consecutive wins over the West Indies in the Tri Series in Ireland. But they have only knocked off targets of 300 plus three times – and chased down 250 targets just 11 times since making their ODI debut in 1986.
And Joshi admits Bangladesh need to get better at chasing big totals if they are to be competitive in the weeks ahead.
“There are always things to improve,” added Joshi, who reported no injuries but admitted some frustration at losing their last eight wickets for just 95 runs.
“Rahul batted very well and hopefully he won’t bat like that again when we play in Birmingham.”
“Dhoni just allowed our bowlers to bowl to his strengths. Momentum is very important and it gets the tone of the game.”
Despite the defeat he was determined to accentuate the positives.
“There are lots of positives, we’ve got very close to an Indian team in our last two outings,” said Joshi, who made 69 ODI appearances for India between 1996 and 2001.
“It was a practice, a warm-up, so we experimented with a few things. We wanted to see how our bowlers shaped up against different batsman at different stages of the game.”
“It was a friendly game so we wanted to learn lessons and I think we have. They were 104-4 and we had an opportunity at that point but Rahul and Dhoni played very well.”
