Dubai: Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons lamented his side’s missed opportunities in the field and poor shot selections after their narrow 11-run defeat to Pakistan ended their Asia Cup 2025 campaign.
Chasing a modest 136 for victory, Bangladesh folded in the Super Fours fixture despite their bowlers having reduced Pakistan to 51 for 5 earlier in the game. Three dropped catches cost them a place in the final.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, who hit two sixes in a 13-ball 19, was dropped twice by Nurul Hasan and Mahedi Hasan when Pakistan were struggling at 51 for 5. Mohammad Nawaz, who went on to make 25 off 15 balls with two sixes and a four, was dropped by Parvez Hossain Emon before he had even opened his account.
“When we dropped Shaheen and Nawaz, that’s where the game changed. Before that, we were in control. Some of the catches maybe had something to do with the lights, but I don’t think the ones we dropped had anything to do with the lights,” Simmons said in the post-match press conference.
Highlighting how his side was composed against Sri Lanka in their first Super Four encounter when they chased 169, Simmons said that their batters made some poor shot selections in the middle against Pakistan.
“We didn’t have to chase it in any (particular number of) overs. We just had to win the game. It was just bad decisions. All of the teams have that at some point. It was us today. We didn’t make the best shot selections,” said Simmons.
The coach also rued the absence of captain Litton Das, who missed his second straight match with a side strain. “Losing the captain in such good form is a big thing for us. When someone of his class is suddenly unavailable, the situation gets tough,” he added.
On reshuffling the batting order, Simmons backed his call to promote Mahedi Hasan to No. 4, even though he managed just 11 off 10 balls, saying, “You look at it as someone batting at No. 4. I look at it as someone taking on the pacers in the powerplay. He could have taken on the pacers more than if he went in the lower order against the spinners. I had Jaker (Ali) and Shamim (Hossain) down there, who could take on the spinners.”
Despite back-to-back losses to India and Pakistan that knocked them out of contention, Simmons highlighted positives from the campaign. “(Saif Hassan) is definitely the biggest positive from this campaign. The other one is how our bowlers did in the whole tournament. They were spot-on, every game,” he said.
(IANS)
