Bangladesh fast bowler Taskin Ahmed rued missed chances after their heavy loss of 86 runs in the second T20I against India at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Wednesday. The Tigers wicket-keeper Litton Das dropped Nitish Kumar Reddy’s catch when he was on five.
Reddy was trying to play a hook shot but gloved the ball to the wicket-keeper, who bungled it. It proved to be a costly miss as the rookie batter went on to score 74 runs off just 34 balls. Reddy added 108 runs off just 51 balls with Rinku Singh, who scored a fine knock of 53 runs off 29 balls.
The SRH batter scored his maiden T20I fifty off just 27 balls and his knock helped India post 221 runs on the board. On the other hand, India was spot on in the field with Hardik Pandya taking a stunner to dismiss Rishad Hossain.
“Catch drop is always costly, especially against an opponent like them who are best in the world. The margin of error is very small and so it was costly,” Taskin told reporters after the match.
“Look, in the powerplay we did well but they batted well in the end and unfortunately spinners had a bad day. Normally we don’t have these kind of bad days but in T20 anything can happen on any day. The spinners could not grip the ball as there was dew. We were in the game till the 11th or 12th over and on this wicket, if we had kept them under 180 runs, it was chaseable.”
Ahmed, who returned with impressive figures of 2-16 in his quota of four overs, added they don’t have a habit of scoring big runs in the T20I format like the Indian team.
“They (India) score 180 to 200 runs regularly. For us that is 130-40 at home. We don’t have that habit (of scoring big runs) and that is the reality. Hopefully in the coming days our home conditions will get better and at that point we can chase big runs and defend as well. At the same time, if we can play different franchise leagues we will have better experience. Our cricket will develop when the structure of our domestic cricket is strong.
“They (Indian batters) play their shots fluently even when there is a small margin of error. If we try to play shots lying down like them (scoop and lap shots), it would hit our head. This habit that they have grown is due to playing on good wickets from the early stages of their career,” said Taskin.
The third T20I of the series will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Saturday.