It was, as Ireland stand-in captain Paul Stirling, admitted a familiar story as Bangladesh piled on the runs in the second T20 international in Chittagong and then took early wickets to win the series with a game to spare.
The margin this time was 77 runs – huge in the shortest format – and Stirling fears it could be a case of back to the drawing board.
“We continue to struggle to pick up wickets up front and not controlling the rate, so a double blow. We were thoroughly outplayed. We want to see improvement and we certainly haven’t seen that today,” was his honest summation after Bangladesh scored 202 for three in just 17 overs, the game reduced when rain delayed the start by 100 minutes.
Stirling was out to the first ball of the reply, caught behind off Taskin Ahmed – his first golden duck for four years – and by the end of the sixth over, Ireland were 43 for six with Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan’s left arm spin taking the other five wickets as Ireland determinedly tried to play their attacking brand of cricket.
Curtis Campher was the stand-out batsmen after the early chaos and brought up his second T20 half-century, from 29 balls, with an outrageous reverse sweep for six – his third maximum – but was bowled by Taskin next ball, while Graham Hume enjoyed himself at the end and also hit two huge sixes off left arm spinner Nasum Ahmed.
The other big positive, and identified by Stirling, was leg spinner Ben White who finally ended Bangladesh’s opening stand in the 10th over – his second – with 124 runs on the board!
In contrast, three of the seamers, Graham Hume, Campher and Fionn Hand – who replaced Craig Young in the one change – bowled five overs between them and did not even manage a ‘dot’ ball. Opening bowler Mark Adair had to wait till his third over to have a scoreless delivery but finished with five, including the other wicket, caught by his brother Ross, in another first.
