We suffered because of fielding: Mashrafe

DHAKA: Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has said that his side “definitely suffered because of the fielding” after they were beaten by West Indies in the second One-day International on Tuesday.

Shai Hope scored a fine 146* to help the visitors to their first victory on tour, but Mortaza believed Bangladesh could have swung the result in their favour had his batsmen capitalised on their starts.

Three players scored half-centuries for Bangladesh, but no one turned that into a century.“We were on the right track. It’s unusual, if you look at our recent performances,” said Mortaza.“We always have had centuries or two centuries or innings of 80-90 runs. The batsmen couldn’t implement what they tried to do. We have to minimise the mistakes in the next game.”

Fielding was also an area of concern for Bangladesh. They dropped three catches in the matches, two of which were of Keemo Paul, who went on to stitch an unbroken 71-run stand with Hope to seal the chase with two balls remaining.

“We have definitely suffered because of the fielding,” said Mortaza.“We dropped Paul twice, otherwise Kemar Roach would come to bat and it would be difficult for them to rotate the strike.“There’s no compromise on fielding practice. But, at the end of the day, confidence matters in the field. Sometimes you drop one catch and then miss easy catches because of uneasiness.”