Sanju Samson of India drops a catch during the Asia Cup match between India and Bangladesh at Dubai International Stadium. (Getty Images) Bangladesh came excruciatingly close to booking a spot in the Asia Cup final against India on Sunday (September 28). Instead, it will be a blockbuster at the Dubai International Stadium featuring India and Pakistan. It will be the first instance of an Asia Cup final featuring the two arch-rivals.Pakistan were 51 for 5 when Nurul Hasan and Mahedi Hasan dropped Shaheen Shah Afridi in the 12th over. Afridi, who was on one run at the time, retaliated with two sixes in a 13-ball 19, giving Pakistan a little momentum. After his dismissal, Parvez Hossain Emon dropped Mohammad Nawaz at zero, and Nawaz went on to score 25 off 15 balls, including two sixes and a four.
India enter another final but continue to be sloppy in the field | Concerns ahead of title clash
Bangladesh coach Phil Simmons felt the dropped catches, and “bad decisions” from the batters, was the reason they were unable to chase down the 136-run target. In the end, Bangladesh lost by 11 runs. If they had held on to their chances, and everything else remained the same, Pakistan would have added 43 runs fewer.”When we dropped Shaheen and Nawaz, that’s where the game changed,” he said. “Before that, we were in control. Some of the catches maybe [had something to do with the lights] but I don’t think the ones we dropped had anything to do with the lights,” said Simmons.The fielding could once again be in the focus during the Asia Cup final with India also guilty of being shaky in the field. The Suryakumar Yadav-led team has let go of 12 catches in the five matches, for a catching efficiency of 67.5 percent. Only Hong Kong had dropped more chances.Varun Chakravarthy was asked about India’s poor record in the field during the Asia Cup and the spinner acknowledged the stadium’s ‘rings of fire’ makes things difficult.”You can’t give excuses at this level. As a team, we have to definitely start catching those because we will be qualifying for the finals. We should be taking these catches, but definitely, if you ask me about rings of fire, it comes in the eye, something. It is a little bit of disturbance,” Chakravarthy said after India’s 41-run victory against Bangladesh.After India’s win over Pakistan on Sunday, captain Suryakumar Yadav reflected on the fielding woes and joked, “The fielding coach T Dilip has emailed the boys with butter on their fingers to appear before him.”
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