'Planned a last-ball bouncer' - Mashrafe

Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh T20 captain, defended Farhad Reza's bowling in the final over of the second T20 against Sri Lanka, saying they had planned to bowl a bouncer off the last ball to set up a catch in the deep.

Reza came on to bowl the final over of a frenetic T20 with Sri Lanka needing nine off the last six balls. With the batting side needing two off the final ball, Reza bowled a short-of-length delivery that was put away by Sachithra Senanayake for four. It was the second time in three days that Bangladesh had lost a match off the last ball.

"In the last ball we all planned that rather than tying, we wanted to win the match," Mashrafe said. "We wanted it to be a bouncer but the ball was wet and soft, he gave his full effort but it became slow on impact.

"Farhad actually bowls the bouncers well in practice. We wanted him [Senanayake] to mis-time it, that was the plan. He could have bowled a yorker and it could have been the same thing, but our aim was to get a wicket."

Mashrafe conceded that the T20 losses were due to moments that didn't go their way but stressed that the performance of the youngsters was the biggest positive for Bangladesh from this series.

"We missed a number of players but after the young players came and performed, there is a lot to gain from these two matches," Mashrafe said. "We can take a number of positives from here to the World T20s.

"The wicket was good. After getting a good flow, Shakib's and Bijoy's catches were really good. We have to take it on our own back, because we couldn't bat properly. We needed 10 to 15 runs more. Hopefully we can do better in the one-day tournament."

For Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal, the series was a chance for the team to gather information about Chittagong, their World Twenty20 venue in the first round.

"I am really happy at the way we played," Chandimal said. "We never underestimated the Bangladesh team. They are good in the shorter format. Sometimes we need luck as I said. For us, as a unit, everybody did their bit. I think we got some good experience for the World Twenty20s.

"It's a really good opportunity for us before the World Cup. We are playing in the same venue so we got the advantage, especially with respect to when the dew factor will come into play, how the wicket is behaving, we got something in our sleeves."