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12:00 AM, September 30, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:43 AM, September 30, 2018

Heroic Tigers return home

Heroes of the Asia Cup final Mehidy Hasan Miraz, left, and Liton Das were beaming upon their arrival at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport last night. The Tigers returned home from the UAE with their heads held high. Photo: Palash Khan

After an agonising defeat in the final of the Asia Cup against India in UAE on Friday night, the Bangladesh cricket team returned home last night with heads held high.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and his troops fought till the last ball of the match defending a small total of 222, but ended up as runners-up once again.

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It was a mixed bag for the Tigers in terms of performance and there were a lot of incidents on and off the field, making the competition a memorable one.

It started with Tamim Iqbal's return to bat with a finger injury and defending a Suranga Lakmal delivery against Sri Lanka in the opening game where the left-hander left the field early after suffering a blow to his left hand knuckle against the same bowler. Tamim's bravery was praised worldwide.

Mushfiqur Rahim smashed a magnificent hundred with a fractured rib in the same game before scoring 99 against Pakistan while Shakib Al Hasan's departure from the tournament following a finger injury ahead of the Pakistan game made matters more desperate for the Tigers.

Tigers' next assignment will be the upcoming home series against Zimbabwe later this month featuring three ODIs and two Test matches.

The Zimbabwe series will be followed by another home series against West Indies in November where they will play two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is.

"We have two home series and the New Zealand tour. We have a lot of work to do in the next two series, where we will have to play well," Mashrafe told reporters after the defeat in the final on Friday.

The team management will also have to deal with the injury concerns of the senior members of the side ahead of the home series.

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The morning of September 29 must have broken with some harsh light for the Bangladesh cricketers in Dubai and their loyal fans back home. It was much the same on March 23, 2012, when the Asia Cup final against Pakistan was lost in the final ball in Mirpur the night before. But as time wore on in 2012, the pain of defeat gave way to a feeling of accomplishment born from the feeling that Bangladesh cricket had finally broken through and had defeated all but one of their more celebrated neighbours before falling at the final hurdle.

On Friday night, the pain of failure at the final hurdle in the final ball -- this time against India -- haunted the cricketers and cricket lovers once again. Like 2012, this pain too shall pass but there will be a different sense of accomplishment from Asia Cup 2018.

Defeating Sri Lanka in the opener, then Afghanistan and Pakistan in must-win games may sound par for the course for the team fans have come to know since 2012. However, winning two of those matches without talismanic opener Tamim Iqbal and the one against Pakistan without both Tamim and ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is not something that would have been expected. Making the final in the kind of heat they had never experienced before and doing it with setbacks that would have crippled Bangladesh sides of the past marks a new level.

To accomplish that, young players who were part of the support cast -- Liton Das and Mohammad Mithun -- and those who were leaders in waiting but often seemed to need a helping hand -- Mustafizur Rahman and Mehedi Hasan Miraz -- came to the fore. That, and the tremendous fighting spirit shown by the Tigers throughout the two-week long event -- not least in taking India's chase of 222 down to the final ball on Friday -- will be Bangladesh's biggest takeaway.

"Everyone may think about the 2012 Asia Cup final, but I see it a little differently," Bangladesh opener Tamim had said on September 13, two days before the tournament opener against Sri Lanka in Dubai. "The 2012 Asia Cup was the tournament where we first got the belief that we could beat any team -- that we could be competitive.

"I remember that; not my four fifties or how we lost the final by two runs. I remember how we played as a team and beat teams that no one would have thought we could beat. We beat India and Sri Lanka, and lost two very competitive matches against Pakistan."

Little did Tamim know then that it was his injury two days later, which forced him to fly out of the Asia Cup and back home, that would contribute to this tournament being remembered as the next big step for Bangladesh after 2012.

Since 2012, Bangladesh's graph has trended upward, with occasional dips. But a common feature of that rise has been the people doing the heavy lifting. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad have been the five cricketers who have worked wonders for Bangladesh cricket over much of the last decade.

But this Asia Cup was a departure from the norm because the Bangladesh team do not often do well with setbacks, especially when they have to fight with those setbacks against oppositions perceived to be superior. That happened in this tournament too -- losing the last group game against Afghanistan and the first Super Four match against India in abject fashion were a function of them struggling to overcome the setbacks of losing Tamim, scheduling confusions and having to play three matches in four days in 40-plus degree heat.

The recovery, and the architects of the recovery, will be the source of inspiration for future campaigns. While it is true that there was magical captaincy from Mashrafe, he still had to rely on opener Imrul Kayes to fly in on Saturday night and score a match-winning fifty against Afghanistan on Sunday from number six, rescuing the side in partnership with Mahmudullah from 87 for five. Faced with non-performing opening pairs, Mashrafe took the wildcard decision to open with number eight batsman Mehedi in the final, but the youngster still had to show the courage to be a part of a 120-run opening stand with a sublime Liton. For his part, Liton was the one who had to repay his captain's continued faith, and he did so with a maiden century in the most important game of the tournament.

Mushfiqur was Bangladesh's best batsman in the tournament with scores of 144 in the opening game and 99 against Pakistan. In both those innings, however, Mithun was an indispensable foil with innings of 63 and 60 in century-plus partnerships that rescued Bangladesh from top-order collapses. 

In each of Bangladesh's three wins in the tournament, someone other than the Big Five stepped up and took responsibility. The bowlers, led by Mashrafe, Mustafizur and Mehedi, were consistent throughout and the spirited fielding was the flag-bearer of the team's never-say-die spirit.

 "The positives depend on the individuals. I think losing to India twice was something that I didn't desire. When Shakib and Tamim are back, the team will do well in the future if we can hold on to this spirit," Mashrafe said after the match.

There will certainly be heartbroken fans who will rue another missed opportunity, another last-ball failure. But this tournament showed that the ingredients long craved for outside the Big Five are very much present and the work in progress is waiting for completion with the return of the two big stalwarts.

The takeaway from this latest heartbreak is that it will just be a matter of time before bittersweet gives way to unadulterated joy.

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The Bangladesh innings of 239 all out against Pakistan yesterday, leaving overs unused for the fourth time in five matches of the ongoing Asia Cup, revealed much of what is ailing Bangladesh batting. Mushfiqur Rahim was once again brilliant and extremely unlucky to be the first Bangladesh batsman to be out on 99 in international cricket. While he responded to the terrible setback of losing Shakib Al Hasan before the match by absorbing all the pressure, the performance of the rest of the top order raised serious concerns about Bangladesh's bench strength and also the willingness of those outside the experienced batsmen to respond to a match situation.

On a pitch that had a bit of grass, none of the Pakistan pacers bowled an unplayable ball except a Shaheen Shah Afridi delivery to Mohammad Mithun in the sixth over, when the left-arm pacer's delivery pitched outside leg and jagged away outside off, completely opening the batsmen up. Yet Bangladesh were three wickets down for 12 runs by the end of the fifth over. With Shakib out of the tournament one may have thought that the openers would try to preserve wickets to compensate for the hole in the middle order. However, Soumya Sarkar -- playing his first ODI in almost a year -- went for the hook the first opportunity he got when Junaid Khan bounced him in the third over, perishing because he was too late on the shot.

If Soumya's error revealed thoughtlessness, Mominul Haque's dismissal exposed the lack of bench strength. After hitting a boundary off Shaheen Shah, he was beaten by pace in the next ball by a bowler who, while nippy, is not the fastest going around. In the next over Liton was foiled by a tactic as elementary as Junaid coming around the wicket. To a straight ball that was homing in on off and middle, the opener tried to play towards mid on and had his stumps disturbed. 

Like he did in the first match against Sri Lanka on September 15, Mushfiqur stitched together a face-saving 144-run partnership with Mohammad Mithun. With his team seriously hurt by the new absence of Shakib and the old one of opener Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur refrained from any of the brain fades that saw him get out reverse-sweeping against India and run out in suicidal fashion against Afghanistan. The same could not be said for Mithun, who repeated his error from the Sri Lanka match by playing a rash shot just when the bowling was at their mercy.

The remaining six wickets could add just 83 runs. As has been happening in every match that Bangladesh have not completely lost the plot in, one of the senior pros have stood up and made up for the rest.  

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If there is one thing that permeates every facet of Mushfiqur Rahim's identity as a cricketer and, as proved once again in the Asia Cup opener on Saturday, his status as Bangladesh's best all-round batsman it is his monk-like dedication to prepare as well as humanly possible.

He drew on the Zen-like calm that exhaustive levels of honing inevitably brings while authoring a sublime 150-ball 144 that started in 40-plus degree Celsius heat and went through the travails of a misfiring batting line-up. While a top order collapse and a middle order flurry of wickets is part and parcel of Bangladesh cricket, the Dubai heat in September is not something that any of the team had experienced.

"This is why we train. We don't have experience of batting in such conditions in the past but nobody really notices the hard work we put in at training," Mushfiqur said yesterday at the team's Dubai hotel. "We don't see you when we go for the running sessions at 8:00am. You come after 10:00am or 11:00am. The whole team dedicates itself to such training and this is the just result. [Mohammad] Mithun could have played such an innings because he too prepares himself really well."

He scored his first 10 runs off 31 deliveries, making sure there were no further damages after Bangladesh lost two wickets in the first over and Tamim Iqbal through injury in the second, talking Mohammad Mithun -- making a comeback to the side -- through the tough phase and some false shots. He hit the side's first boundary in the last ball of the eighth over, which in these boundary-filled times shows how tough those first 10 overs were.

Having shown his skill of endurance, the multi-layered Mushfiqur then set about taking the attack apart, bringing up his 50 off 67 balls.

"Mithun really helped me with his positive intent, he made things easier for me. I thought if we could build a partnership -- it was a very good batting wicket -- we would be back on track," said Mushfiqur. "But he got out at a bad time because a set batsman should not have gotten out at that time."

Mithun faltered in the 26th over, playing across the line to Malinga and getting out, precipitating a collapse of three wickets for 10 runs. Mushfiqur returned to endurance mode and continued to inch Bangladesh towards a competitive total with a string of small partnerships with the lower order.

When Tamim made his heroic appearance on 229 for nine, when all 13 players on the ground had thought the innings over, Mushfiqur went up a gear that probably he alone has in Bangladesh. At his best, his arsenal of shots is so varied that no delivery, even yorkers, escape punishment. There was the scoop that turned into a ramp at the last second, inside-out cover drives for a four and a six and a pulled six that would have been expected of a batsman twice his size.

It speaks to the scale of his ambition and his ability that, while the rest of the world raves about the innings, Mushfiqur would not say that it was his best innings.

"All things considered, many may say that," Mushfiqur said. "But I think in the future there may be better innings. But till now, it is one of the best; not the best."

About Tamim coming out to bat with a broken wrist, Mushfiqur -- nursing an injured rib himself -- said: "It was unbelievable. It was different from mine because he could not grip the bat at all. All of us have the dedication for the team and country. Of course the focus is on the two of us because the team won because of us, but even when we lose the dedication is the same."

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When Bangladesh take on India in the Asia Cup final in Dubai today, it will be a battle between two sides who have come to the title clash through highly contrasting routes and with widely divergent levels of confidence.

The match will start at 5:30pm (Bangladesh time) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

India had confirmed their place in the final by beating Pakistan by nine wickets on Sunday, the same day that Bangladesh had just managed to stay in contention with a three-run win over Afghanistan. India then rested their best players -- including captain Rohit Sharma and vice-captain Shikhar Dhawan -- for their last Super Four match against Afghanistan, who were inspired by leg-spinner Rashid Khan into forcing a thrilling tie against the world's top-ranked ODI team on Tuesday.

The following day, Bangladesh woke to the news that ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan would follow opener and highest run-scorer Tamim Iqbal out of the tournament, but still rallied to beat two-time champions Pakistan by 37 runs in Abu Dhabi.

While that meant that Bangladesh made the final for the third time in the last four editions, it also meant that they would have one less day than the more-fancied India to recuperate after toiling in heat that they had never played in as a team.

There is also a contrast between the respective strengths of the sides. Bangladesh have routinely lost two wickets inside the first 10 overs and have played out the 50 overs only once in five matches. Meanwhile India have only lost more than three wickets on the two occasions when they played at less than full strength -- against Hong Kong in their first match when they lost seven wickets for 285 and against Afghanistan, when they were bowled out for 252.

"It was difficult [winning against Pakistan] with performers like Shakib and Tamim not playing," said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza at the pre-final press conference yesterday. "The good thing that the boys have done is that they did not given up, although we lost to Afghanistan in the group stage and again against India [exactly a week before the final], but still they fought back.

"There are some concerns with our batting, but Mushfiqur [Rahim, the second-highest scorer in the tournament with 297 runs] is in great form. [Mohammad] Mithun is playing well, [Mahmudullah] Riyad also batted well. If our top order can click it will be fine. But again I think that India are a far better team -- number one in the world. They came here as favourites, but you never know, anything can happen on a good day. We have to be mentally strong and fight till the end."

While India will have a settled team, Bangladesh have not played the same team for two matches in succession throughout the tournament. The injuries have forced them to get creative, such as batting left-handed opener Imrul Kayes at six to combat Rashid's leg-spin on Sunday. There may be a change today, with left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam coming into replace batsman Mominul Haque to try and contain India's vaunted batting order.

Imrul could also slot back into the opening position, pulling Soumya down to the lower middle order. With the way things have gone, it is a fool's errand to guess their plans. Mashrafe also has an injury to his right little from when he spectacularly caught Pakistan's Shoaib Malik on Wednesday. However, there is no danger of the captain not playing in the title clash.

The crux of the battle may be in the top order because the two teams match up pretty evenly with the ball. Bangladesh have not conceded more than the 255 for seven Afghanistan scored against them last Thursday. As Mashrafe said, if it goes according to form, the top-ranked India should come out on top against the seventh-ranked Bangladesh. But if the Tigers can find the solution to the top order woes at the most opportune time, they will have performed above themselves and could conjure an unlikely result.

Bangladesh also have the invisible hand of momentum going in their favour, having won their last two matches with spirited performances.

However, it should also be remembered that they have never won a final, including a loss to India in the last Asia Cup final at home and in the Nidahas Trophy in March.

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Performers, be they on stage, in front of television cameras or on the field of play, sometimes talk about 'love the mess' -- in other words revelling in the scenario when things spin out of control -- in order to survive the chaos. Bangladesh are certainly in a chaotic situation in the UAE in their Asia Cup campaign, and just before today's final against top-ranked India, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza seemed to have started embracing the bedlam.

"In this tournament we surprised ourselves and you folks as well. There were different players at different times in different positions," Mashrafe laughed as he answered a reporter's question about team composition. "Anyway, it was more to do with being a victim of circumstance. With Shakib [Al Hasan] not there, you might see someone [opening the batting] tomorrow who has never opened. We are prepared for everything and I am also asking you to be prepared."

The Asia Cup has been a trial by fire -- or at any rate intense Middle Eastern heat -- for Bangladesh. They lost opener and highest run-getter Tamim Iqbal with a left-hand fracture after the first match, had to contend with confusion surrounding the group placements and scheduling that seemed to be a product of organisers favouring India, and then the loss of ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.

While Mashrafe, always an upbeat person, at times cut a forlorn figure in the middle stages of the tournament when they lost abjectly to Afghanistan and India. But then, on Sunday in the three-run win over Afghanistan, things started improving even as they appeared to become more pear-shaped. Opener Imrul Kayes was flown in to bolster a weak opening partnership, but Mashrafe decided to bat him at number six for the first time in his life, and he scored 72.

On Wednesday, after Shakib was ruled out, Bangladesh still managed to win against Pakistan, having to play with a bowler less. Part-time medium pacer and the other opener flown in, Soumya Sarkar, made up for that handicap with a fine bowling performance and took a wicket, shockingly, with a bouncer. 

Roles have been redefined and Mashrafe seemed to be revelling in the madness of it all.

Seen from a wide angle, this topsy turvy state has hardly come out of the blue. Tamim suffered the fracture in the 11th ball of the tournament against Sri Lanka. Even though he came back to the dressing room with his left arm in a sling, Mashrafe urged the opener to go out at number 11 to enable Mushfiqur Rahim to score as many runs as possible. Tamim had the gumption to follow the order and played a ball one-handed, contributing to the 137-run win.

That single bit of courage and flexibility seems to have infected the whole squad throughout a tournament of highs and lows.

"Frankly, when Tamim took the field with a broken hand, to me I had won the Asia Cup right then," Mashrafe said with a smile.

If he can keep embracing the chaos and thinking out of the box, there may actually be more to smile about today.

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