Healing the wounds of 2014
A mosh pit; that's exactly what the Tigers formed after Rubel Hossain uprooted James Anderson's stumps with a toe-cruncher. Forget the group hugs, forget the traditional laps of honour; this was more than that. The joy was as such that it compelled the players to break away from the 'gentle' formalities and slam into each other heavy metal-style; thankfully though no one was hurt.
The jubilation, in a sense, released a huge amount of pain and frustration that almost all these players have had to carry over the last one year. 2014 after all, witnessed one of Bangladesh's worst runs in ODI history. It saw defeats and changes that almost no one expected and the core of the team was the worst affected.
Mushfiqur Rahim was forced to apologise to the nation twice after defeats to Afghanistan and Hong Kong and also got stripped off his captaincy; Shakib Al Hasan was banned twice on disciplinary grounds; Mahmudullah Riyad was ridiculed with sections of the media targeting his familial relationship with Mushfiqur; Tamim Iqbal was taunted for his apparent lack of form and fitness; while Nasir Hossain's reign in the side had come to an end.
Almost every senior player had to go through tough situations both on and off the field. They were like rock-stars in need of rehab. And honestly speaking not many in the cricketing fraternity believed that they could overcome this period.
And that's the reason why they were surrounded by a cloud of negativity going into the World Cup, even after completing an 8-0 whitewash over Zimbabwe. The Bangladesh Cricket Board's inability to hold on to Shane Jurgensen barely ten months before the mega event was criticised. The game's governing body also came under fire for not being able to provide the Tigers more time in Australia -- they only got two weeks in Brisbane -- for preparation. In addition, things went haywire after Bangladesh lost all four of their warm-up games, including the last one against Ireland.
Add these events together with the perilous task of battling Australia, New Zealand and England in alien conditions and a berth in the quarterfinal seemed many a miles away.
The Tigers needed to play out of their skin and create something special to leap out of the deep trench that they had created and, fortunately enough, that's what they did in Adelaide.
Perhaps the best part about this win was that it had broken long-established norms. They didn't depend on Shakib Al Hasan or Tamim Iqbal; they didn't look towards their army of spinners and neither did they buckle under pressure during crunch moments.
It was an underdog who scored the century; it was the pacers who made England's life miserable and it was the Bangladeshis who repeatedly came back in a match which saw the odds swing like a pendulum.
In general defeats can never be forgotten. We are, after all, just a click away from recalling the stat that Bangladesh had lost 13 out of their first 14 ODIs in 2014. However, they can be forgiven. And the way the Tigers roared in Adelaide on Monday, a major portion of the wounds of 2014 seemed to have healed, for it was a performance that met the hopes and expectations of 160 million.
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