England All-rounder Sam Curran revealed that England’s players were relieved to have avoided injury during their match against Bangladesh in Dharamshala, despite fielding on a “poor” surface for close to 50 overs. The defending champions made a strong comeback in the tournament with a thumping win over Bangladesh after losing their first game against New Zealand.
Players on both teams were cautious when fielding in the deep during England’s 137-run victory on Tuesday. Several deep fielders opted to escort balls to the boundary rather than diving and incurring the risk of getting hurt. Before this match, match referee Javagal Srinath and independent pitch consultant Andy Atkinson from the ICC rated the outfield as “average” for Bangladesh’s victory over Afghanistan.
Speaking to the media after the game, Sam Curran feels that both the teams were fortunate to avoid any injury in the outfield on their last game in the venue and revealed that the message from the team management was to be cautious in the field to avoid injury in the longer tournament.
“It was pretty bad, We’re pretty happy to get through that game without any injuries – both teams, I think. That’s pretty important, and we don’t have to come back here.”
“[The message] was just ‘be careful’ and you saw when Bangladesh fielded, they were pretty careful as well. Nobody wants to see anyone get injured and luckily, there weren’t too many balls we had to sprint after… we’re just pretty happy that no one’s injured coming into the next game,” Sam Curran said.
Earlier during the opening encounter in Dharamshala, Players from Afghanistan and Bangladesh tumbled several times while fielding and Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott wasn’t too pleased with the outfield in Dharamshala as he feels that their primary spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman was fortunate to escape the harm following such a fall during Saturday’s World Cup encounter against Bangladesh.
The Conditions Weren’t In Our Control, We Should Have Adjusted Better – Taskin Ahmed
Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed admitted that the conditions were tough to run and bowl in the game, as he said that everyone could not bowl in the bowl at their full flow in the game. He believes that everyone should have adjusted more effectively to the circumstances.
“The outfield was soft. It was tough to run here. Everyone felt that we were a little off-balance, or slipping in the run-up. But the conditions weren’t in our control, so we can’t make it an excuse: we should have adjusted better,” Taskin Ahmed said.
Bangladesh were completely outplayed in the game by the defending champions England, as they found no answers to the quality batting and bowling display of the Jos Buttler-led side in their second game and the Shakib al Hasan-led side will look to turn things around in their next game against New Zealand on Friday.
