‘Bangla need support, not criticism’

Paceman Richard Johnson added four scalps to his first innings five-wicket haul as England bowled Bangladesh for a paltry 138 in 37.1 overs after setting them a mammoth 468 for victory on a wicket offering pace and bounce to the quicker bowlers.

“It was a very disappointing match for us, no doubt, but we need support,” Whatmore said. “This is not the time when we need people to say we’re terrible.

“We would have oviously preferred to make a bigger fight of it,” Whatmore said. “It becomes a mental game when you are so far behind the opposition on day four. It takes a superhuman effort to just dig in and dig in. Things like that don’t happen very often.”

The former Australian Test player, who led Sri Lanka to a stunning win in the 1996 World Cup, said Bangladesh’s progress had been slow but steady.

“In sport if you are looking to go up from a position low down, it’s never ever a straight line,” he said. “There’s always a bit of here and there in the middle. How the team handles that in the future will determine how we shape up.

“I don’t think we should jump to conclusions. I still think the team has done pretty well.”

Even in the first test against England last week, they were in with a good chance before a batting collapse on the fifth morning set up the visitors’ seven-wicket win.

“We played nine days of Test match cricket against England,” Whatmore said. “Two of those seven days England dominated but you couldn’t say they dominated on any of the other days. I’d rather look at the series globally and search for a few other angles rather than be negative and hit the team hard.”

Bangladesh take on England again in three one-day internationals starting on November 7 and travel to Zimbabwe for a Test series in January.(Reuters)