Taylor: We were very disappointing

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor was gutted by the narrow defeat against Bangladesh, saying if only they’d scored 30 more runs they’d have been able to scrape a win.

The Tigers needed 101 runs to win the game, and at one point they were three down for none. It was a tense finish, with Bangladesh finally getting the winning runs with three wickets in hand.

Zim were bowled out for 114 in their second innings, with Taylor’s 45 the only score above 14. Taijul Islam took a record-breaking eight wickets for 39 runs, and Taylor was disappointed by the poor batting.

Taylor said, referencing the dropped catches by John Nyumbu: “We have been saying 150 would have been very interesting. But at the end of the day, we batted badly and did not deserve to win the game.

“They could have been 10 for 5 but that’s the way it goes. If we could have got Shakib there and (Mahmudullah) Riyad, that would have been a big difference. Good teams and good fielders will take those chances and probably we didn’t have our best fielder there at that time.

“Losing the match always hurts. We can be proud of the way we fought and tried to defend a 100 runs but being bowled out for 114, that’s what hurts the most. We were very disappointing. The way we got out, we didn’t really show any fight.

“At the end of the day, if we are not going to put runs on the board and put a prize on our wickets, we are not going to win too many games. So we have got a lot to learn from this game.

“But I can assure you that in the second game the guys will be a lot more disciplined, lot hungrier to succeed.”

Taylor also lamented the lack of wickets taken by his spinners on a deck that the Tigers showed was very helpful, with Nyumbu and Tafadzwa Kamungozi failing to impress.

He said: “I think our two spinners were a little bit weak. But unfortunately we lost two very good players, Sean Williams and Prosper Utseya, but that is not an excuse.

“Our spinners haven’t played a lot of first-class cricket and they weren’t good enough today. So they have got a lot to learn. Hopefully there might be a change in the second Test match. “

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