Veteran Bangladesh player Tamim Iqbal feels that Bangladesh should have gone all out in their run-chase attempt against Afghanistan in the final Super 8 stage game of the 2024 T20 World Cup as well. Bangladesh had the upper hand in the race for the semifinals, with the sole condition being that they had to chase down the 116-run target in 12.1 overs or less as well.

They made a spirited start to the run chase as Litton Das showed intent from the beginning. However, their attempt deflated as Afghanistan started taking wickets. Bangladesh were arguably still in the hunt as Litton Das looked in great touch and the side were placed at 73/5 after nine overs. Following Towhid Hridoy’s dismissal, Bangladesh chose to play defensively. By the time the 12.1 over cut-off arrived, they only had 82 runs on the board at the loss of seven wickets as well.

“Bangladesh will be very disappointed. I think Bangladesh should have gone for the chase, even if it meant getting bowled out for 70 or 80. They anyways went onto lose the match, but they had the opportunity to do something very special and these kind of opportunities does not come around very often, especially after not winning anything in the Super 8,” Tamim Iqbal said on ESPNCricinfo.

“In patches, Bangladesh looked like they were going for the chase, but then wickets fell and there was less intent in the batting in few of the overs. Atleast if they had tried to chase it down and lost by 30-40 runs, people would have understood that there was an opportunity and we tried and we failed, but that is fine. Neither we won the game, and neither did we try to chase it down,” he further added.

However, Bangladesh ended up failing to chase the run as well. They fell short by eight runs to finish the Super 8 stage without a single win
under their name as well. “As a batting group we made a lot of poor mistakes and that cost us. First six overs, the plan was to go for the qualification. If we lose early wickets, bat normally,” Najmul said during the post-match presentation.