Brittle batters repeating 'mental mistakes'

Test cricket is physically and technically more challenging than the other forms of cricket, but it's often the mental aspect that turns out to be more crucial. After the second day of the ongoing Gqeberha Test, Bangladesh batting coach Jamie Siddons implied that the reason behind Tamim Iqbal and Najmul Hossain Shanto's dismissal was mental, saying, "I don't think aggression got them out. It was a poor mental mistake."

Siddons spoke about rectifying the mental and technical mistakes quickly but it seems that two more batters have made mental mistakes on the third day of the match after being well-set.

Bangladesh started off the third day in a positive fashion. Yasir Ali struck a hattrick of fours off pacer Lizaad Williams and capitalised on some loose bowling by the South Africa pacers who were, more often than not, too short, too wide and too straight early on. Keshav Maharaj extracted more turn off the pitch than the Bangladesh spinners but Mushfiqur Rahim and Yasir spent the first hour safely. 

Yasir survived a leg-before shout in the fourth ball of the 60th over bowled by Maharaj. The only thing that saved Yasir was that the ball pitched outside leg stump and the decision went in favour of Bangladesh. The ball turned prodigiously and Yasir was beaten. Two balls later, he was early into his shot, closing the face too early off a tossed up delivery which resulted in a leading-edge and Maharaj took the catch. 

It was the event that took place two balls earlier that might have worked in favour of the bowler. Yasir played extremely well up to that point, playing each ball to its merit but the sudden leg-before shout caused a lapse in concentration. Yasir fell just four short of a well-made half-century. 

While Yasir was the aggressor in the partnership between him and Mushfiqur, the latter was focused as ever. He survived a tough spell the previous day and was patient on the third day as well. It looked like he was set for a big one, leaving behind his recent failure in this form of the game.

He negotiated the pacers and Maharaj well and greeted Simon Harmer, the off-spinner, with a fantastic boundary off a conventional sweep. He was beaten by a ripping off-break the next delivery and the ball hit his pads. The ball turned too much and would have gone over the stumps.

Mushfiqur had just reached his fifty, the lunch break was just ten balls away and he was Bangladesh's last recognised batter. On top of that, they were yet to avoid the follow-on. And Mushfiqur played the unlikeliest shot that was possible at that stage - the reverse sweep - and lost his stumps. It was the umpteenth time Bangladesh lost a crucial wicket just before a break. Mushfiqur probably thought of upsetting the rhythm of Harmer after a superb delivery. The idea may be right but the shot and execution were not. 

It was again the same 'mental mistake' Siddons spoke about the previous day that cost Bangladesh big time. 

And what followed next was quite expected. Bangladesh lost the last three wickets for only seven runs, another area Bangladesh are lagging behind in the ongoing Test series.