LEADING THE CHARGE: West Indies captain Darren Sammy celebrates after picking up Bangladesh opener Imrul Kayes's wicket during their World Cup match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan tried his best to hide his frustration as much as he could, but the young captain's expression after his team's humiliating nine-wicket defeat showed that West Indies had pulled them down to earth yesterday.
In his brief career Shakib embraced defeats many times besides some brilliant successes, but what happened at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Friday was something new for him which he would never try to recall.
Previously, the all-rounder always came down hard whenever he faced any bitter question, what to some extent has earned him a bad name in media, but he was as humble as he could be while addressing a post-match briefing after his side's capitulation.
"We have to sit down and think about what happened today," was the humble answer from the Bangladesh skipper who added: "It was not our day."
Bangladesh recorded their lowest ODI total at their favourite venue when they were bundled out for 58 runs in 18.5 overs which West Indies overcame in just 12.2 overs losing one wicket to finish the day-nighter in shortest possible time.
Even the word 'mismatch' was not good enough to describe how pathetic the defeat was for the Tigers in front of a capacity-crowd and the batsmen were the main culprits behind the disaster and they simply brought back the old horrors of Bangladesh batting.
When the World Cup draw was done Bangladesh consciously thought that the West Indies were the only big team they could beat beside two Associate Member countries Ireland and Netherlands to ensure their quarterfinals berth. But it now turned into a nightmarish experience for them.
"It was a bad day for our cricket as we played poor cricket in the middle. It was definitely the worst day in my cricket career also, but you never know things can get even worse in future," admitted Shakib when asked whether it was the saddest day in his career.
Praising the West Indies bowlers, Shakib admitted that there was a lack of application in their batting. "Nothing went right except winning the toss. We didn't bat well. Expectation was high because of our last 12 months' performances but we could not carry that in today's match."
The heartbreaking defeat now made the equation difficult for the Tigers to qualify for the quarterfinals but the Bangladesh skipper said that everything was not over for them as they still had three matches to play.
"It's very tough now but not impossible to qualify for the quarterfinals. Still we have a chance because we have three group matches in our hand and we must win two. I believe the batsmen will come back hard in the next games because they are capable to do better," hoped Shakib.
Bangladesh have six days before their next game against England on March 11 in Chittagong and Shakib said that they had to work hard during the break if they were to get out of this hiccup.
The time might have come for the Bangladesh think-tank to accept the fact that their batting was never out of question despite the record series victory against New Zealand.
Shakib saw the other side of the coin yesterday and it may help him give a long look back at everything.
