We need to reduce silly mistakes: Hridoy

Bangladesh and Afghanistan took the ODI series as dress rehearsal for the World Cup later this year and a loss here will be a tough pill to swallow for the home side. Bangladesh fielded a full-strength XI with Shakib Al Hasan returning to the side after recovering from a finger injury. 

But it all went wrong for them when they were sent in to bat on a wicket that offered variable bounce. Afghanistan were all over Bangladesh and the batters barely had answers to Fazalhaq Farooqi's pace and swing and later the guile of the spin trio.

Bangladesh failed to negate the Afghanistan spinners again as they went at 2.88 runs per over and lost five wickets to Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. The uneven bounce of the wickets made the job more difficult. Towhid Hridoy's 51 off 69 on a tough wicket was the only silver lining on a day where the other batters struggled big time.

Hridoy admitted that Bangladesh's batting was not good enough and the conditions were not too tough. "I didn't feel that [the conditions were too difficult]. But there was uneven bounce, the wicket was a bit low early in the match. I think if we could bat a bit better, the scenario would have been different. Our batting was not good enough today," he said.

The batting collapse and the loss will hurt Bangladesh but Hridoy said they can overcome this. 

"We all are mature enough [to overcome the loss]. A number of players have been playing for the national team for a long time now. There is nothing to teach anything new to anyone at this point. Players are experienced, hopefully we will think individually to get out of this situation. We always back each other in the dressing room. We have the faith that we can come back from this situation."

Hridoy's approach towards the end of the innings where he decided not to shield the tail-enders raised a few eyebrows. And Afghanistan got his wicket just at the right time when he was planning to take the attack to the bowlers. 

"Maybe it would've been better [to keep more of the strike to myself], but I actually didn't think it that way. We planned to bat normally as it was progressing. We would see how it goes in the final two-three overs," he mentioned. 

"Hopefully, we can come back from this [and win the series]. We need to reduce the silly mistakes that we made today. It's still possible to win the series from here. Some of us couldn't give our best today. If two or three of them can contribute in the next matches, we will make a comeback from here," he concluded.