Bangladesh batsman Zakir Hasan blamed his team鈥檚 batting and fielding mistakes for their downfall as the hosts were on the verge of losing the second Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram.
The abysmal batting show in the first innings was instrumental in leaving Bangladesh on the verge of a 2-0 clean sweep in the Test series as the Tigers suffered a crushing 328-run loss in the first Test in Sylhet last week.
The batting vulnerability was key in failing to get past 200 for the third straight time in the series as Bangladesh were bundled out for 178 in the first innings, conceding a huge 353 runs.
Sri Lanka, who posted a massive 531 in the first innings, could enforce a follow-on, but they chose to bat first.
However, despite a collapse, they reached 102-6 at stumps, extending the overall lead to 455, which already left Bangladesh in a record chase for a victory.
Bangladesh鈥檚 highest successful chase in the fourth innings of a Test is just 217, which they did against the West Indies in 2009 at St Georges, while the world record for a successful chase is 418, which the West Indies did against Australia.
鈥榃e totally failed with the bat. We couldn鈥檛 bat to our potential. We couldn鈥檛 perform our roles. We couldn鈥檛 play as we were supposed to play,鈥� said Zakir, who was Bangladesh鈥檚 top scorer with 54, after the third day鈥檚 play.
鈥楢ll departments have to fire to win a Test match. I think batting is the most important of all. We can鈥檛 defend a total if we can鈥檛 put anything on the scoreboard.
鈥榃e need to have a decent score when we want to take 20 wickets. We haven鈥檛 been able to do it. We are discussing how to get better, but we are somehow failing altogether.鈥�
The young opener also said that there can be no excuses for dropping catches, as the Tigers dropped five catches during Sri Lanka鈥檚 first innings.
鈥楨veryone feels bad to drop catches. We dropped a lot of catches in this match. We can鈥檛 give the excuse that we felt bad dropping the first catch so we couldn鈥檛 take the others. We are trying to improve in this area,鈥� he said.
When his teammates failed to deal with the Sri Lankan bowlers, Zakir was the lone fighter, scoring his fourth Test fifty before falling to Vishwa Fernando, while the other home team batters failed to score more than 40 runs, effectively knocking them out of the race to win the Test with two days to spare.
However, the 26-year-old believed that if they could execute their plans as a batting unit, it would have paved their way to achieving the goals in the match.
鈥業t depends on the situation. Like you could be playing spin or pace. Say a nightwatcher is sent to bat towards the end of the day, we try to play safely. But those plans come much later. We couldn鈥檛 do our basic job. We have to execute our first plan as a batting unit.鈥�