I don't know why says Bashar

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar was at a loss for words after his side collapsed sensationally on the first day of the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

"I don't know what happened. We keep doing the same mistakes from time to time. Even in the one-dayers we were 50-1 and then suddenly 55-6. I think it must be lack of experience," said Bashar.

Bangladesh at one time riding on Bashar's attractive knock of 84 off 96 balls were happily placed at 155-2 before crashing to 188 all out. By the close Sri Lanka had replied with 160-3.

"Our coach keeps telling at us that when things get tough we should fight it out. There is something definitely wrong. All the batsmen played bad shots and got out. Sri Lanka has got some world-class bowlers, but to lose eight wickets for 33 runs is not acceptable," said Bashar.

He refused to point a finger at one of his successful batsmen Mohammed Ashraful for triggering the collapse.

"Batsmen do play bad shots and get out, but I don't blame Ashraful for the bad batting. He may have started a collapse but there are six batsmen in the side and everyone has to score runs," he said.

Bashar said that with the pitch assisting spinners they were happy to snare three Sri Lanka wickets before the close.

"Mahela (Jayawardene) is batting well. He is in top form. If we can get either Mahela or Tilan (Samaraweera) in the morning, we have a very good chance to get back into this game," said Bashar.

Spinners brought us back - Moody

Coach Tom Moody said that the spinners brought Sri Lanka back into the game after poor bowling in the morning session.

""It was pleasing to see Rangana (Herath) get a good bowl and bowl well. We managed to put pressure on them and restrict them. It's nice to have control of the game after day one although we did the hard way,"said Moody.

"It's been a funny wicket. Leading upto lunch it looked like a pretty flat batting track. Then after lunch it's like the roller had worn off and the wicket started to become more and more difficult to bat on. It's not what you expect for a day one Test wicket," he said.

"There's quite a bit of turn and inconsistency. Batting is not easy and I thought even though a couple of batsmen got in they'll be disappointed that they didn't push on and get a bigger score. We had to work very hard for our runs. I don't think it's particularly a good wicket," Moody said.

Sri Lanka according to Moody was looking to get some consistency into the batting order using the Bangladesh series. It is an area he said that they had identified as being inconsistent during the West Indies series. But however their plans have been somewhat thwarted by the state of the pitch.

"A wicket like this stems the flow of the game. You don't see the game taking its natural path.

There is a lot of pace in the wicket for the quick bowlers and for the spinners it is starting to turn considerably," said Moody.