Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore hoped his young batsmen would learn quickly from their 10-wicket thrashing by champions Australia in a World Cup Super Eights match on Saturday.
Fast bowler Glenn McGrath claimed the record for most World Cup wickets after removing three top order batsmen who unwisely tried to attack him in the truncated match.
Australia restricted their unfancied opponents to 104 for six and then raced to 106 for no loss. The game was reduced to 22 overs each after a five-hour delay caused by a wet outfield.
”A little bit of inexperience in this short form of the game and some indiscretion, basically,” Whatmore said summing up the performance of his team.
McGrath, one-day cricket’s sixth highest wicket-taker, gave a bowling masterclass to rout Bangladesh in their debut appearance in the second round of a World Cup.
”He has got the best economy rate,” Whatmore said. ”The boys knew that but they still wanted to hit him. That is the frustrating part.”
Perfect yorker
McGrath bowled opener Shahriar Nafees with a perfect yorker and removed Aftab Ahmed and Mohammad Ashraful, with both mistiming shots in the air.
Whatmore put that down to rush of blood than a lack of talent in a team that shocked India in the group stage to qualify.
”That is what they have got to get out of their game,” he said. ”A little more discipline, applying a little bit more logic and then they will do better.”
Bangladesh were reduced to four for 37 in the eighth over.
”We can’t lose four wickets in the power play overs and expect to get a reasonable score to defend.”
Bangladesh next play formidable New Zealand, the only team other than Australia to remain unbeaten in the tournament so far.
Whatmore urged his players to learn how to build their innings rather than worry about results against superior rivals.
”What we want to do is to be a lot more competitive individually with the players. Give them certain targets to try and achieve so collectively we can have a very good game of cricket.
”We need to preserve a bit more wickets and take a little more time in accumulating runs. That will help us enormously.” – Reuters