Sad end to a great journey

 There was an eerie sense of quietness amongst the Bangladeshi contingent at the team hotel yesterday. It almost felt as though the players were still going through the motions of their thumping defeat at the hands of India.

While some of the cricketers stepped out to enjoy some fresh air, many of them preferred staying in their rooms. The overall sentiment though remained the same. They felt unlucky and deprived. The one thing that was clear was that the players were yet to recover from the hangover.

"I accept that we didn't do well with the bat. But it got difficult after that decision [no-ball against Rubel Hossain] went against us. That did have an effect on us. We couldn't recover from then onwards," said a player 

"But on the whole it was a very good performance from India. Their bowlers judged our weaknesses very well and bowled accordingly. It was a sad end to a good journey," he added.

Like in post-match press conference skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza preferred not talking about the controversial decisions in the match. He moved on his thoughts to his calf injury. He didn't look very fit against India and his bowling wasn't up to the mark either. At the moment his next aim is to be fit in time for the series against Pakistan, which is due to begin on April 10.

While Bangladesh did end up achieving their target by reaching the quarterfinals of the competition, chief selector Faruque Ahmed was a bit disappointed with the way the Tigers performed in the knockout stage.

"It was good that we reached the last eight. But I thought our batting could have been a lot better. We were unfortunate with some of the decisions but we should have put up a better show with the bat," said the former national captain.

Bangladesh left for Adelaide yesterday. They are scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh tomorrow evening. The manner in which the tournament ended for the Tigers clearly does not reflect the intensity with which they played throughout the World Cup.

From beating England to taking New Zealand down the wire, there was a lot of energy from this young side, which as Mashrafe put it, is only likely to grow in the coming year.  While this episode has ended, the Tigers will now move on to a series of cricket contests this year. They are scheduled to face Pakistan, India, South Africa and Australia this year. If they can hold on to the brand of cricket that they displayed throughout the mega event, they could very well spring a few surprises.