Just falling short at Chattogram

Game Two had it all - Ireland's third best powerplay with the bat, a collapse, a slight off day with the ball but Heinrich Malan will be happy to learn as much as he can before the World Cup.

Bangladesh 174 for 6 (Litton 57, Parvez 43, Delany 2-28) beat Ireland 170 for 6 (Tucker 41, T Tector 38, Mahedi 3-25) by four wickets

A key moment might have possibly been the lights going out in the second T20I. Just after the start of the third over, there was an issue with one of the stadium towers which brought a pause to play.

Ireland walked off at 28/0 (2.1 overs) with both Tim Tector and Paul Stirling enjoying overs of spin from Mahedi Hasan and Nasum Ahmed. The pause in play was considerable enough to break momentum with Stirling in particular just struggling for his timing against Tanzim upon returning.

However soon enough the skipper was back in rhythm, Tim was back in business, and the visitors reached 75-1 after 6 overs - Ireland’s third-best powerplay and 200 seemed on the cards.

Tim Tector impressed again but was dismissed by a lovely piece of bowling from Mahedi Hasan to have him stumped. Mahedi bowled it with a lower arm which just brought the ball beautifully away from the outside edge to trick the opener.

Losing Stirling to a difficult-to-call catch out in the deep gave Bangladesh an inch but it was the wickets of Tim Tector (88-2), Harry Tector (89-3) and Ben Calitz (103-4), that really stunted Ireland’s progress. You live by the sword, die by the sword etc etc in T20 cricket but 200 had seemed in sight.

Testing your plans

Before the match, commentator Isobel Joyce had felt 170 would be par. Of course you’d now say 180-200. It depends too how you go with the ball.
Bangladesh went better against Matthew Humphreys this time around as his methods become better known. Teams at the World Cup will have time to do their homework on him, but they’ll only have one game to make it count.

An expensive first over for Josh Little set him back, but the left arm quick looked better later on with a tighter line while two dropped catches if held could have provided just the extra confidence you need returning from injury.

Mark Adair, who is also returning from injury, didn’t do as well as he had done in Game One - just not quite nailing his lengths.

Barry McCarthy went wicket-less but his run out of Tanzid Hasan was much needed in the powerplay as the home side got off to a strong start of their own.

Parvez Hossain Emon (43 off 28) set the tone with the bat however it was a fired up Gareth Delany who crucially prized out the opener and added an extra competitive edge when Ireland just needed something extra. Having not quite featured on Thursday, he seemed to be everywhere in Game Two.

A key moment was when Delany couldn’t quite keep his towel off the rope after he took an incredible catch on the boundary or perhaps it was his own movement of the original line of the boundary that went against him.

Overall head coach Heinrich Malan will be mostly happy with his side’s day out. They probably should have won after such an explosive start with the bat in the powerplay and the exact make up of the Irish middle order will require some thinking.

However getting to go through your bowling plans in a tight game like this is vital as management will want to leave no stone unturned ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Still no one likes losing. While Ireland refine their bowling plans, pushing towards 200+ with the bat definitely couldn’t hurt in the final T20I, especially when Tim Tector and his captain look so settled at the top of the order.

This article was originally published on Dave Sihra’s Substack: Dave Meets Ball