'Our fielding effort hurt us, gave too many easy runs' - Tamim Iqbal opens up after losing against Zimbabwe

After a poor T20I series, Bangladesh lost the first match of the ODI series as well against Zimbabwe to register their first 50-over loss to Zimbabwe in nine years. Sikandar Raza and Innocent Kaia’s brilliance helped Zimbabwe register a win with five wickets to spare. Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal believes that it is their fielding that cost them the match. The Bangla tigers were very sloppy on the field and thus the team couldn’t choke Zimbabwe.

Notably, Bangladesh dropped four catches in the first ODI of the series in Harare. Raza was dropped by Taijul Islam on 43, and the all-rounder went on to score 135 runs, while Kaia was dropped twice and he went on to hit a century as well. Later on, Luke Jongwe was dropped as well.

“Our total fielding effort hurt us (in the first ODI). We have given away too many easy runs. We could have created a little more pressure through dot balls, instead we conceded easy singles,” Tamim said.

“I have been saying that we have been dropping a lot of catches so it had to cost us at some point. This was probably the day. Previously, we have gotten away with it. When you drop four catches, you are not going to win the game,” he added.

Bangladesh’s struggle in the batting department continues

Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud recently called out the team because of their slow strike-rate. Despite having the senior pros in the squad, the team managed to score only 39 in the last five overs. Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah could not take advantage of the situation despite having wickets in hand.

“We should have scored 15-20 more runs when you consider the circumstances”, said Tamim. Defending the duo, the skipper said, “It will be very unfair to point out one or two individuals. As a group, we should have got those 15-20 runs. Those in the middle really tried hard. They have done it a lot of times, so I am not one to point fingers at my players”.