Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh captain, has said his team had gifted away the Mirpur Test with some irresponsible batting on the final day. Bangladesh, he said, have to work on their temperament. West Indies completed a 229-run win to take the Test and series on Wednesday, after Bangladesh failed to bat out the fifth day on a relatively easy track.
"They [West Indies] hardly got us out, we gave away the wickets," Mushfiqur said. "[Shivnarine] Chanderpaul told us at the end of the game that 'At no stage did we think we got you out. Don't do this [bat recklessly] in the future.'"
Coming into the fifth day, Bangladesh needed 344 runs to win, and had Tamim Iqbal batting on 82. The plan, Mushfiqur said, was to not lose more than two wickets in a session. "Our gameplan was to bat session by session. A win would have been big but a draw wasn't that bad either. It would have been hard for them to bowl us out if we had lost a maximum of two wickets in a session."
However, Bangladesh lost Tamim in the third over of the day, and then Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur in quick succession before lunch. "After Tamim unfortunately got out, Shakib and I batted till about 25 minutes to lunch. There were 12 overs left before the new ball and I believed that if we had played till lunch and negotiated the next ten overs, they wouldn't be able to do anything to us."
Tamim edged to slip while trying to drive Devendra Bishoo - who was getting a fair amount of turn out of the rough, the only assistance the pitch was offering the bowlers - while Shakib's attempted paddle sweep off Darren Sammy produced a top edge that was snaffled by Chanderpaul. Shakib's misjudgement, Mushfiqur said, swung the game in favour of West Indies.
"It [Shakib's wicket] was the real turning point today," Mushfiqur said. "He didn't play a good shot, he knows it too. I haven't seen a shot like this in Test cricket. Batting is a game of one ball, one misjudgement and you're out. Shakib knows what he did today and I hope he won't do it again."
The team, Mushfiqur said, need to work on the art of building a Test innings. "We don't play long innings in Tests, we lack temperament. You need to play long innings if we want to win or draw a Test match. We need to work on this, make it a habit of playing long innings.
"There are times when we don't know what to do, whether to go slow or up the pace. Our thoughts have to be to make it a big knock after we are set. We lose concentration when a wicket falls at the other end. Batting is about selecting the right ball and I think we really have to work on these things."