Calcutta: Shattered and devastated, Mashrafe Mortaza's facial expression on the eve of Bangladesh's last group-phase tie summed up the mood in the camp.

One really feels sad for the captain as he's leading a group who play well at home but fail to perform outside the country.

Nevertheless, Mashrafe still deserves a pat for preferring to count on the positives in this hopeless situation, urging his teammates to regroup and prevent New Zealand from going into the semis with an unbeaten record on Saturday at Eden Gardens.

"Recovering from such a defeat is always difficult. We had 48 hours to ponder over it. Obviously, we can't change what happened... we still have one more game to play.

"It's very important for us. We knew we were placed in a tough group. Having said that, we have to play at our best again. "If we get the opportunity, we have to make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes," Mashrafe said on Friday.

The skipper was again asked if there were possibilities of his retirement from international cricket post Saturday's match. "I will decide only after returning home," was Mashrafe's reply.

After the heartbreaking loss to India, former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar lashed out at Bangladesh for not being able to pull off close matches even after 18 years of struggle at the big stage.

Thanks to the mess up by Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, Mashrafe had to accept such remarks. "We couldn't win despite requiring only two off the last three deliveries. So, we have to accept such criticisms.

"Whatever remarks people make, we've to accept them. The situation was such that anyone could make any kind of comment," he said.