Few undoing the good of many
The fanfare around Mirpur yesterday for the Bangladesh-West Indies match almost made one forget that Bangladesh were in the midst of their worst phase in recent times. But change was afoot, not least in the personnel. The most significant was the popular Nasir Hossain being dropped, which must have told the team -- accused recently of being too comfortable despite poor performances -- to pull up their socks. And for the most part, despite West Indies' healthy score of 171, Bangladesh's bowling and fielding displays were imbued with an awareness that served them well. In other smaller phases old slothful habits came back to haunt them, which unfortunately for the legions of Tigers faithfuls ultimately proved to be decisive.
That awareness was seen when fielders regularly threw the ball at Chris Gayle's end when the West Indies batsmen were running, knowing well the Jamaican's aversion to the quick single. It did not result in a run-out, but as Gayle was there till the 19th over, it brought about some hesitation that resulted in numerous aborted singles.
The very fact that the usually ballistic Gayle batted till the 19th over and scored just a run-a-ball 48 hints at how well Bangladesh bowled at him. Leading the way was Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Al-Amin Hossain, the pacers who bowled a tight line and length to Gayle, rarely giving him any room to swing those powerful arms. On a pitch that was on the slower side, the bowlers kept the ball on an in-between length that did not let Gayle unfurl those horizontal-bat shots he is so fond of.
Another welcome sight was the five fielders inside the circle when skipper Mushfiqur Rahim unleashed his strike bowler, Shakib Al Hasan, in the 13th over. Shakib's first ball was a wide that Mushfiqur collected down the leg side and whipped the bails off to have the ambling Lendl Simmons stumped. Thereafter Marlon Samuels, the only West Indian proficient in working the spinners for singles, was tied down by the three fielders inside the ring on the off-side, resulting in Shakib's first two overs going for only nine runs.
But old habits die hard, and they came flooding back all at once in the 17th over of the innings, Shakib's third. Shakib bowled a wide full ball that went through Mushfiqur's legs for four and off the next ball, a full toss brought four more in the same manner, with Mushfiqur looking at the bowler bemused and embarrassed. That was not the end of it; the fifth ball was also a full toss that Gayle powered down to long-on and Anamul Haque misfielded on the first bounce and let slip a four. Another full toss followed and Gayle, given enough shots on target, hammered it over long-on. Twenty runs in the over and all the momentum lost.
Ziaur Rahman's over, the 19th of the innings, produced 16 runs when really it should have been eight. The over featured the best and worst of Bangladesh. Tamim Iqbal held an outstanding catch at long off to get rid of Gayle, but then Mahmudullah Riyad dropped catches off consecutive balls at long off to let slip two boundaries. Put that together with Anamul's misfield, an earlier four let through by Shohag Gazi and Mushfiqur's twin mistakes, and Bangladesh leaked 20 unnecessary runs.
The last over featured beautiful bowling by Al-Amin and perhaps the catch of the tournament by Tamim to get rid of Dwayne Bravo. But while Bangladesh had striven to get out of their doldrums with some much-needed awareness, a small passage of wasteful cricket left too much to do for their most fragile and, rapidly becoming most incompetent, department -- the batting.
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