‘It’s our own fault that we are in such a plight’

Bangladesh were left with a daunting task when umpires called Stumps on the second day of the second and final Test against the West Indies at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today. 

The Mominul Haque-led side are now trailing by 304 runs after finishing the day with 105 runs for the loss of four wickets, all of which the Tigers lost in the final session of the day.  

"The four wickets that we lost, it's not like that they were due to good deliveries or because of the wicket. We lost all four wickets due to errors made by batsmen. Had we lost two wickets less with the same number of runs on the board then we definitely would have been in a better position. it is our own fault that we are in such a plight. We could have been in a better position had we not made those errors," said Tamim Iqbal, who fell after a promising start today, after the day's play. 

Soumya Sarkar, who was named in the squad as Shakib Al Hasan's replacement, was the first one to fall off a Shannon Gabriel delivery when he chipped a length delivery straight to the fielder at short mid-wicket in the very first over. Najmul Hossain Shanto followed Soumya's path soon as he edged a wide delivery from Gabriel to the fielder at gully, leaving Bangladesh in a spot of bother at 11 for two. 

After the two early dismissals, skipper Mominul started building a good partnership with Tamim but he too fell prey to Rahkeem Cornwall's spin in the 15th over. Tamim was the one who looked to be in charge and on top of the Windies bowlers till he saw his 52-ball 44-run knock, laced with six boundaries and a maximum, end when he too chipped one to short mid-wicket just the next over after Mominul's departure.   

Bangladesh survived the rest of the day without any more hitches on the way as Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun saw the day through remaining unbeaten on 21 and six respectively. 

"Till now, wicket did not behave in a way that should worry us. Important thing for us would be to not lose any wickets in the first session tomorrow as we have already lost four wickets and do not have much batting left. A lot will depend on this partnership [between Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun] and hope that they will build a good partnership tomorrow," hoped Tamim.