Fooled by clouds, foiled by fear
At 7:00 am, the clouds had gathered. In the days leading up to the Test match, the talk from most people who knew a bit about Senwes Park was that the ball does not seam around much here, unless there is a bit of cloud cover. And even then, they said it will move around only for the first hour. At any rate, they added, it is a bat-first pitch. South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis said as much when he lost the toss yesterday -- that he would have batted first.
Before that, Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim had said on the eve of the match that the pitch looked dry, and would take spin later on in the match, which presumably would disadvantage the team batting second. Du Plessis had said that he 'hoped' that it was quick and bouncy as per their request, but also said that it looked like a good batting pitch.
Yesterday, by the time the players started warming up at 8:30 in the morning, an hour before the toss, the sun had begun to peak through. The pitch, uncovered for the first time in a day, was whitish with a tinge of brown, not much grass. The sun was ducking in and out, but in the horizon there was a widening strip of blue. Even if the cloud cover persisted till the start of play, it would not last long. There would be an hour of movement at most.
So, the time for the all-important toss had arrived and just at that moment, the sun ducked in behind some clouds. If you were a Bangladesh follower at the ground, and generally wished the team well, you would not have had to wonder too long why the clouds were making you uneasy. The electronic scoreboard had the explanation: Bangladesh have won the toss and elected to field.
A South Africa team desperate for runs after a poor series with the bat in England closed their previous season were allowed first use of a pitch that both captains had agreed was a good one for batting. If you reverse the saying 'fortune favours the brave', then justice seemed to have been served as the clouds dispersed by the time South Africa started their innings. Mustafizur Rahman and Shafiul Islam were unable to get many balls to move off the straight. It was imperative that they did, because the Kookaburra ball used in South Africa has a flat seam and whatever movement the seamers could get would be on offer for the first 20-25 overs.
Skipper Mushfiqur had uttered the words 'courage' and 'guts' on more than a few occasions in the lead-up to the first ball. Interestingly, he also used them at the toss. There was also much talk about using Bangladesh's pacers on the pace-friendly pitches of South Africa. Coach Chandika Hathurusingha had said that now, when two South Africa pacers are injured, may be the best time to play them.
After Shafiul had bowled two overs, and the score read 13 for no loss after five, Mushfiqur brought on off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz, in South Africa. After they won the toss and elected to bowl. An off-spinner, with Taskin Ahmed waiting in the wings.
Was it that Mushfiqur was trying to simulate home comforts by bringing the spinner on early? That is a question that one can be sure, at the time of writing when the post-day presser is still to take place, there will not be a satisfactory answer to. Neither will there be a straight owning up to the real reason they chose to field first. It was explained by the decision to bring Mehedi on. There was not a courageous or attacking atom in the decision; there was no plan to hunt the opposition with pace. There was just the fear of the 7:00am shadow.
That is of course not to say that Bangladesh would have plundered runs if they had batted first. But even if they were all out for less than 200, they could say that they took the positive option to put runs on the board, but failed. As it turned out however, yesterday they failed to implement whatever plan they had and also exposed themselves as fearful of negotiating even the possibility of some movement in the first hour.
In doing so, they have made it clear as early as the first morning that there can only be one winner in this Test.
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