Bangladesh coach Sridharan Sriram has conceded his team might have succumbed to pressure in the thrilling five-run loss to India in their Super 12 Group 2 match of the ICC T20 World Cup, and has also said he has no intention of taking the potential fake fielding incident involving Virat Kohli during the match any further.
Bangladesh were cruising along at 66 without loss in seven overs, with Litton Das coming out all guns blazing and snatching the advantage of making 184/6 from India through a breath-taking 59 not out off 26 balls laced with seven fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 226.9 when rain put a halt to his pyrotechnics.
Bangladesh's target was revised from 185 in 20 overs to 151 in 16 overs. They needed 85 more runs in nine overs to win the match, with all wickets in hand. India's bowling attack, which took a beating in the power-play, got the much-needed respite thanks to the rain break and they went on to win the match by five runs (D/L method).
Sriram agreed the rain delay and the revised target brought the pressure on his side and it crumbled."Well, it was quite frantic for that brief (last) 10-12 minutes (of the match), which is understandable. I think the boys, nine runs an over or 9.75 runs an over, definitely I think the pressure got to them a little bit.
Yeah, it was a little bit of a frantic 15-20 minutes if I can put it, yes," said Sriram, the former Australia spin-bowling coach.Bangladesh are scheduled to play their last Super 12 game against Pakistan on Sunday with a win not guaranteeing them a place in the last four, but the results of the remaining two Group 2 games South Africa vs Netherlands and India vs Zimbabwe could facilitate their semifinal entry.
Much heat has been generated over on-field umpires missing a potential fake fielding incident involving Kohli, which could have earned Bangladesh five runs in penalties and a victory against India, but Sriram said he is not here "to offer any excuses" for the defeat.
Wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan accused Kohli of fake fielding during the match, claiming that the umpires missed the incident and could have resulted in the opposition getting crucial five runs as penalty. The incident that Hasan talked about going unnoticed took place in the seventh over of Bangladesh's chase when Kohli feigned a throw while standing at point, as if he was relaying a throw coming from Arshdeep Singh from the deep off the bowling of Axar Patel.
Neither the on-field umpires, Marais Erasmus and Chris Brown, spotted it, nor did the two Bangladeshi batters, openers Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto, out in the middle, pointed it out.Law 41.5, pertaining to unfair play, prohibits the "deliberate distraction, deception or obstruction of (the) batter", and if an incident is deemed to be a breach, the umpire can declare that particular delivery as dead ball, and award the batting side five runs.
But Hasan didn't mention if either of Das or Shanto spoke to him or to the team about distraction or deception from Kohli pretending to throw the ball to the keeper.Shedding light on the controversy, Sriram said, "No, we are not here to offer any excuses.
I did speak to the fourth umpire as soon as it happened, but I think it was the on-field umpire's call, and that's what we were told, but we're not here to offer any excuses."Sriram said the focus now is to beat Pakistan and wait for the results of other matches to go in his team's favour.
"I've been very clear in all my press conferences. We're just taking it one game at a time, plan for one opposition at a time. Every game we want to go, we obviously want to win it, but we're aware of what challenges Pakistan present.
We played them in New Zealand just recently (in the Tri-series), and we have high respect for that team, so we're going to turn up and be at our best on that day."