Mohammedan win Mirpur anticlimax
An impressive spell of pace bowling from Subashis Roy, a few clean hits from Ezaz Ahmed, an eye-catching cut and a drive from Mushfiqur Rahim, a beautiful cover-drive from Sri Lankan Upul Tharanga; these were the few things one could take from yesterday's highly anticipated clash between the two traditional rivals Abahani and Mohammedan in the Dhaka Premier League.
But excitement or intense rivalry was conspicuous by its absence in Mirpur and in the end it could not live up to the billing as Mohammedan simply outclassed their archrivals to stay at the top of the table with 10 points. Within the first six overs the fate of the match seemed to have been decided when Abahani were reduced to 15 for three. Taskin Ahmed's unbeaten 38-run knock finally saw Abahani putting up 183 runs on the board. Had it been the 1980s or '90s, one could still have kept hope, but those days are gone and Mohammedan, riding on Tharanga's unbeaten 77, ensured that Abahani paid the price for their poor batting to put their Super League berth at risk by losing three matches in six games.
One can in no way discount Mohammedan's good bowling effort, especially the way Subashis terrorised the batsmen with the rising deliveries while the slow bowlers bowled in perfect areas. But Abahani captain Tamim Iqbal best described why it became a one-sided affair.
“Even with best team in the world you cannot win a match if you play like we have been playing,” said the left-hander while reflecting on his side's poor batting approach. Some batsmen like 31-year old Indian batsman Manvinder Bisla (23), Nazmul Hossain (42) and Mosaddek Hossain (27) threw their wickets away after settling in the middle and thus Abahani's batting got worse in the crucial match, failing to give their weak bowling attack any chance to avoid their third defeat in Mirpur.
Tamim chased a delivery outside off-stump from Subashis to offer a catch to slip in the first over while spinner Habibur Rahman took the wickets of Liton Das and Avishek Mitra to initiate the early collapse, after which Abahani could do little to post a challenging total. A 51-run eighth wicket partnership between Abul Hasan and Taskin averted total embarrassment but could not prevent the huge defeat.
Subashis was adjudged man of the match for his bowling figure of three for 34. The pacer said that there was something for the pace bowlers in the pitch. In spite of the assistance on offer, Mohammedan played the match with only one pacer and one could be disappointed with the old-fashioned strategy but in the end they were the winners and reestablished the claim that they have a balanced spin attack which has got the ability to make the difference.
SCORES IN BRIEF
ABAHANI: 183 all out in 48.4 overs (Nazmul 42, Taskin 38 not out; Subashis 3-34, Habibur 2-30, Naeem 2-30)
MOHAMMEDAN: 185-2 in 43.5 overs (Ezaz 42, Tharanga 77 not out, Naeem 25 not out)
Result: Mohammedan Sporting Club won by 8 wickets.
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