Middle order spoils decent start

"We need to learn from our mistakes." This statement is the staple of Bangladesh players, uttered almost every time they lose a game.

However, barely anyone gets to see the true reflection of these words.

Such was the case on Saturday as well, with Bangladesh once again suffering a batting collapse in their second of the three ODIs against hosts Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

For the second consecutive time, Bangladesh's middle-order spoiled a decent start provided by their top-order in yet another woeful batting show.

After losing the opening match due to a sudden collapse that saw them lose seven wickets for just five runs just two days ago at the same venue, it was expected that the Tigers would learn from their mistakes and stage a strong comeback with the willow.

Opener Parvez Hossain Emon's maiden ODI fifty, in only his second game in the format, gave the visitors a much-needed momentum early in the contest.

However, their lack of game sense and poor shot selection at ill-opportune moments in the middle overs saw Bangladesh fold before playing the full allotted 50 overs. They were bundled out for 248 runs in 45.5 overs.

Emon (67 off 69 balls) falling prey to a brilliant googly from legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga reduced the visitors to 110-3 in the 20th over, with the onus shifted to Towhid Hridoy, skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Shamim Hossain, and Jaker Ali Anik to utilise the start and play sensibly to post a big total on a decent surface.

Although the majority of the batters got starts in their innings, they failed to turn those into something meaningful as untimely shots triggered a late batting collapse.

Miraz, promoted one place up in the order, threw away his wicket once pacer Dushmantha Chameera tested him with a short ball, which the Bangladesh skipper didn't even try to keep down.

It was clear that Miraz hardly had anything planned to overcome this aspect of his game, despite falling prey to similar ploys in recent international matches.

Shamim Hossain, who came into the eleven in place of out-of-form Litton Das, looked solid during his short stay at the crease. But despite having more than 21 overs remaining, he fell to the same short ball ploy by the opposition, losing his wicket to pacer Asitha Fernando after making 23-ball 22, which brought Jaker to the crease.

As the last recognised batting pair, Hridoy and Jaker had plenty of time to play according to the situation. They even started well to take the Tigers' score past the 200-run mark, but once Jaker (24 off 40) failed to negate Asitha's knuckle ball, Bangladesh's batting order crumbled once again -- slipping to 218-9 from 204-5.

Bangladesh had the last hope with Hridoy, who was the second highest scorer on the day with 51 runs and also became the joint second fastest with Soumya Sarkar to complete 1000 ODI runs for Bangladesh in his 33rd innings. However, a terrible mix-up with Taznim Hasan Sakib, the last thing that Bangladesh needed at that moment, saw him fall to a run-out.

Had Sakib not played an unbeaten 21-ball 33-run cameo, adding 30 runs for the final wicket with Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh would have been bundled out for a much cheaper score.

And the blame would need to be shouldered by the ones who consistently fail to live up to their words of "learning from mistakes".