Bopara criticises Mushfiqur’s decision to let Mendis take the strike

Jannatul Naym Pieal

Sylhet Superstars are again in the headlines for wrong reasons. They started their BPL journey this year with controversy over foreign players, which followed by three back-to-back defeats in three straight matches. And now for the latest of the three losses, English opener Ravi Bopara criticises Mushfiqur Rahim’s game plan.

Sylhet were trailing by 8 runs from 7 balls with Ajantha Mendis having the strike and Mushfiqur Rahim at the other end. Everyone expected that delivery to be result into a dot ball so that the strike goes to Mushfiqur from the very beginning of the last over and Mushfiqur gets six balls to score the needed 8 runs.

But to everyone’s amazement, Ajantha Mendis somehow hit the ball in the gap and called for a run. Mushfiqur also gave a nod and completed the single. As a result, with the completion of the over, the strike went back to Mendis. But Mendis failed to hold his nerve and got himself dismissed without scoring any run in the last over off the bowling of Abu Jayed Chowdhury. And thus Sylhet suffered another last-over defeat with Mushfiqur remaining unbeaten at the other end.

Like everyone else, the incident of Mushfiqur’s going for a run in the last ball of the penultimate over surprised Bopara as well. “It doesn’t make any sense why on earth he went for a run at such crucial time. Maybe as we had lost the previous two matches by one run, those two batsmen at the crease considered every run very important. But unfortunately that one run cost us the entire match.”

Bopara also added, “True that you must go for every single run-taking opportunity laying before you. But that’s not when when you have only one wicket left and you are still shy from the winning line. But at the same time, our top orders are more responsible for the loss. They should have contributed more.

“It’s very disappointing to lose such a close game. It’s really quite frustrating. As a team full of professionals, we should have won these matches. But I don’t want to blame any individual. It was a collective failure. Our bowlers are doing well but it’s high time we came forward as a batting unit also.”

SOURCE: bdcricteam