UAE use their lessons, Tigers not so much

After losing the match against Sri Lanka by 14 runs on Thursday, UAE skipper Amjad Javed was not disheartened and not bothered about playing two days in a row at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Instead, he said he was looking forward to the match against Bangladesh on Friday as he was eager to carry the lessons into the Bangladesh match.
UAE did what any team in their position must do to compete, which is learn their lesson and move forward. They sussed the pitch, which was better for batting than the strip used the previous day, but had some more bounce. As Mohammad Mithun and Soumya Sarkar sped off to a 46-run stand UAE's bowlers did not panic. They held their nerves as Bangladesh made it to 81 for two in the 12th over. Then a nervy Mithun, nearing his maiden half-century, got himself out in bizarre fashion, trying a run after playing the ball down at his feet with the keeper standing up.
The plan, once they had two new batsmen in the crease in Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, then seemed to be to dry up the runs as best they can and let the batsmen make the mistakes. They also banked on a batting line-up unsure of itself. UAE used their less-than-rich resources to perfection. Rohan Mustafa bowled his off-spinners cannily, mixing up the pace, which led to the confusion that caused Mithun's dismissal. Pacer Mohammad Naveed, on the other hand, played a fantastic hand, extracting pace and lift from the Mirpur surface and dismissing Mushfiqur with a short one outside off -- a combination of injudicious shot selection.
Over the next few overs Javed, Mustafa and Ahmed Reza dried up the boundaries to a point where Shakib missed a juicy full toss to be bowled.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, seemed not to have learnt much from their mediocre batting display against India. There was none of the calm that is needed to rack up the big scores in T20 cricket. Panic, as usual, seemed to infect the entire batting order, except for Mahmudullah Riyad. Soumya repeated his tendency to get carried away, hitting a towering six and then trying to repeat it, but getting caught at mid-on instead.
Mithun's 47 may look good on paper, but every shot he played in the latter stages of his innings seemed to be premeditated when he should have been looking to dig in for the long haul. Nurul Hasan, coming in at number seven at a crucial stage, tried to hit his first ball for six and ended up with a golden duck.
In the end, the Tigers' superior bowling skill and the fact that UAE's batting lags far behind their bowling prowess saved them, but the same story cannot be expected against their other Asia Cup opponents.