Heroes who batted with debilitating injuries

Former England captain Michael Vaughan welcomed Bangladesh's Mushfiqur Rahim to the 'exclusive' club of cricketers who have been dismissed for handling the ball in Test cricket.

Mushfiqur became the eighth member of this fictional club on Day One of the Dhaka Test against New Zealand.

Mushfiqur is the first batter since Vaughan to depart for handling the ball in a Test match, a dismissal which was brought under the umbrella of obstructing the field in 2017.

Vaughan, who was given out for handling the ball against India in Bengaluru way back in December 2001, took to 'X', formerly known as Twitter, to react to Mushfiqur's rather comical dismissal.

"Welcome to the very exclusive Handled ball club @mushfiqur15.. only proper players are members," Vaughan wrote in his post.

The incident occurred in the 41st over of the innings when Mushfiqur, batting on 35, defended a delivery from pacer Kyle Jamieson and then as the ball was going wide of the wickets, he swatted it with his right hand.

He is the overall the ninth batter to get out for obstructing the field in Test cricket.

English cricketer Len Hutton was the first player to get out for obstructing the field in a Test match against South Africa in August, 1951.

South Africa's Russel Endean was the first player to be dismissed for handling the ball in January, 1957 in a Test against England.

Mushfiqur Rahim became the first Bangladeshi to lose his wicket for obstructing the field in Test cricket in the post-lunch session of Day one of the second Test against New Zealand in Dhaka today.

The incident occurred in the 41st over of the innings. Mushfiqur, batting on 35, defended a delivery from pacer Kyle Jamieson and then as the ball was going wide of the wickets he swatted it with his right hand even though it was not heading towards the wickets.

The dismissal, which was earlier called 'handling the ball', was brought under the umbrella of obstructing the field by the MCC in 2017.

He becomes the eighth cricketer in Tests to get out for handling the ball.

Interestingly, this was the second time on the day that Mushfiq tried to use his hands to deflect the ball as he had earlier done so against Tim Southee in the second ball of the post-lunch session.

However, in that instance, Mushfiq's hands didn't come into contact with the ball.

Mushfiq was the fifth Bangladeshi to depart in the innings and his dismissal also ended a 56-run partnership between him and Shahadat Hossain Dipu.

Bangladesh bowling coach Andre Adams asserted that there were no demons on the pitch after the end of Day 1 of the first Test at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet on Friday. 

Adams underlined that Bangladesh would need to bat better and the eventual result of the match would largely come from how his side responds to situations rather than the influence of the pitch. 

After bowling out the Lankans for 280 in the final session of the day, the hosts lost three wickets and mustered 32 runs in 10 overs at stumps.

"We have to wait and see how we bat. I think they got too many when we had them five down. It is a good surface. There are no demons. There's a bit of bounce and carry. We have to be much better with the bat. It is certainly not a scenario that the deck will decide the game, but how we play," Adams told reporters on Friday.

The Tigers got off to a great start as their pacer reduced Sri Lanka to five down for 57, courtesy of Khaled Ahmed who took out the top three of the Lankans batting order. Shoriful picked up and the hosts managed to run out Angelo Matthews to leave the visitors tottering. Despite the setback, Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis took control of the visitors' plight and dominated proceedings with a 202-run stand, with both batters reaching triple figures. 

It was debutant Nahid Rana who shone in the final session. The right-arm quick bowled with pace and precision after being taken for runs in the previous two sessions. In a five-over burst, he used his abilities to good effect and sent back both Mendis (102) and de Silva (102) in back-to-back overs to get the Tigers back into the game. He also nicked off Prabath Jayasuriya to take his third.

"They were good in parts. There was partnership bowling throughout the day. Rana bowled very well in partnership with Khaled at the start. But then relaxed the pressure aspect. It wasn't until the two spinners came on that we gained control of the scorecard. I thought Rana was outstanding, especially on debut," Adams said.

"He is an accurate bowler. This is a pretty young bowling attack. Shoriful was good in parts. I thought Rana and Khaled bowled well together. We created several chances in the first session, which was exceptional. Especially when you think that there were only ten overs of real pressure with the ball. Some great fielding and good catching. Disappointing that we didn't grab two chances, which really could have spun the Test match. You have control if you take seven wickets at lunch.

"He is talented. He is fast. He bowled almost every ball at 145kph. He has a beautiful action. He is just so raw. He has a lot to learn but he is very talented," he added. 

Bangladesh bowling coach Andre Adams was not impressed with his side letting opportunities slip through dropped catches on Day 1 of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram on Saturday.  

The Tigers missed three chances, including two dropped catches, and were made to pay the price as the Lankans ended the first day on top with 314 on the board for the loss of four wickets.

After opting to bat first, Sri Lanka openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Madushka amassed 96 runs for the first wicket, courtesy of a 57-run knock from the latter.

Both capitalised on reprieves, with Madushka adding 48 runs to his tally after being dropped on nine by Mahmudul Hasan Joy at second slip in the sixth over, while Karunaratne, who was given a life when he was on 22, ended by scoring 86. He would have to thank Shakib Al Hasan for his knock as he fumbled the opportunity over the boundary while fielding at deep fine leg in the 22nd over. Pacer Hasan Mahmud was the bowler on both occasions.

"You will struggle if you drop catches in any game of cricket. Our fielding has been impressive since I joined Bangladesh. Our ground fielding is excellent. There's been some excellent catches," Adams told reporters after the day's play. 

"However, when you drop a catch early, you can pay the price. We have dropped too many catches. We are working on it. Nobody means to drop it. They are doing the work, but they are dropping catches. We have to continue to work on taking catches."

Another chance went begging late in the day when an outside edge off the blade of Angelo Mathews slipped between the wicketkeeper and the fielder at first slip.

This time, it was off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz who was left ruing. 

The tigers also dropped several chances when they suffered a 328-run battering in the first Test against the Lankans in Sylhet.  

"Dropping catches will continue to cost us if we keep doing it. Like the Sylhet Test, there were periods of pressure but not for long enough. For us to compete and be excellent, we need to be excellent for longer," Adams said. 

Debutant Mahmud, who opened the bowling along with Khaled Ahmed, had to wait 55 overs to make his mark on the innings. He dismissed Karunaratne in the second session of the day to pick up his maiden Test scalp before dismissing Mathews nine overs to stumps.

"Hasan was excellent today. He bowled with pretty good control. He is a young bowler. Lots of talent," Adams said.

"I think he has bowled really well. He controlled his line pretty well. His pace was good. He is ready physically. He has to bowl the same throughout the day. The only way to do that is to play at this level. I think he is an exciting bowler. He has got seam movement. He has got swing and pace. Everything you want from a young pace bowler," he added. 

While top teams, especially the ones who have been successful in this World Cup so far, seem to have proper clarity over their game plan, Bangladesh have looked drab and confused in formulating strategies in the mega event in India.

Struggles in the batting department have been a constant for Bangladesh in recent ODIs, mainly due to the failure of the top order which in turn has led to simultaneous shuffling in the batting order.

However, skipper Shakib Al Hasan, speaking to the media yesterday for the first time since being in India for the mega event, backed the constant shuffling in the batting order in all the first four matches of the World Cup.

"The reason to promote [Mehedi Hasan] Miraz up the order was mainly because he smashed a century against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. So, we decided he would bat up the order against them," Shakib clarified the reason behind sending Miraz up the order against Afghanistan.

That ploy from the team management worked as Miraz scored a fifty and Bangladesh got off to a winning start in the tournament. However, it only went downhill for the Tigers since then as they suffered three big-margin defeats against England, New Zealand, and hosts India.

The India defeat saw Bangladesh come under heavy scrutiny as they failed to utilisie the Tigers' best-ever opening stand in the World Cup, set by Liton Das and Tanzid Hasan Tamim in their last game against India last week, mostly due to the team management's decision of sending Miraz up the order.

As Bangladesh had already gotten a solid start against India, questions were raised whether sending Mushfiqur Rahim, the team's leading scorer in the World Cup so far, would have made more sense considering his experience and well-known capability of rotating the strike.

"Some of our established batters are batting a bit lower down the order, but is there a guarantee that they will score higher up the order? These are difficult and tricky decisions that we have to make," Shakib was skeptical of the notion that promoting Mushfiqur up the order might have worked in Bangladesh's favour.

"It has mixed results. I think we still had chances to score 280-290 runs in all three matches. Only [Mahmudullah] Riyad bhai batted well till the end. I don't think you can criticise that. Riyad bhai is doing well but if we bring him up and he can't perform out of his usual position, then we will all feel about it," he added, hinting that the spontaneity in the batting order might continue even in the upcoming matches.