A year of moments

Photos: Star file

The Tigers got three chances to turn around their Test fortunes, but failure to save all three meant that they had a 0-4 record in five games this year, prompting awkward questions rearing their ugly head.
Instead, teams that are on equal footing in world cricket gained at their cost; Zimbabwe returned to the game's highest format after six years with immediate success and gathered a lot of momentum to scare New Zealand in the subsequent series. West Indies too gathered enough confidence from Bangladesh ahead of their tour to India.
But the Tigers seemed to have taken a few steps in the opposite direction when it could have been much different.
They played the first of the five Tests against Zimbabwe and straight away, they looked like a team reluctant to fight for a win. The home side ran off with a sufficient first innings lead and then had skipper Brendan Taylor play an excellent hand in the second. His century gave Bangladesh a stiff chase though it was always a safe choice to bat out the final day.
The Tigers threw away the remaining seven wickets as Zimbabwe wrapped up the game shortly after lunch. It was a shock to the system for Stuart Law in his first game in charge as the head coach.
Their next game of the longer format came after an extended pre-season camp but none of it mattered.
The infamous draining facilities (or the lack of it) at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong meant that after the Tigers were well placed after the first day against West Indies, the rain was good enough to wash away Day Two and Three, the latter of which had brilliant sunshine from mid-morning.
But it was a Test of positives for the Tigers with Elias Sunny, the left-arm spinner, picking up a six-wicket haul on debut. The Chittagong Test ended in a stalemate, the only positive result for the Tigers this year.
In Dhaka however, it was disastrous from the word go. Sunny missed the game for reasons that have not been explained till now, the tourists then taking a big first innings lead despite not making a large score. But they batted much better in the second innings and with a 507-run lead, the Tigers had to bat out five sessions to save the game.
Seven wickets were in hand on the final day, but it began with a poor shot from Tamim Iqbal, who was playing his best knock of the year. The jolt was managed by Shakib and new skipper Mushfiqur Rahim but just as lunch approached, Shakib's ill-timed scoop was all that the West Indies needed to get seal Tigers' fate.
The same story panned out in the year's last Test match when the battered Tigers took on Pakistan in what was to be an exercise of self-defence. It started off poorly and only Shakib's brilliance and Shahriar Nafees's 97 took them to some solidity. The visitors fought back manfully and it was expected that after two failed attempts to save Test matches, the Tigers would fight as well.
But they didn't, losing in the final session after batting poorly in the second innings.
For the trend to take a different, more positive direction, the Tigers must get their priorities straight. At the top however, the eyes are on a different bowl of fish.

MORE BAD DAYS
If one takes 2009 and 2010 as the benchmark for Tigers' ODI success, then 2011 was quite poor. The trend here was similar to every World Cup year from the past where they have struggled after the overhaul that took place after the mega event.
But at the World Cup held at home, the see-saw performance was frustrating for the fans. After a hard-fought win over Ireland, they were hammered by West Indies. Immediately, they surprised England with a late winner (as they say in football) and crushed the Netherlands. But the end came quickly when South Africa crushed them by the biggest margin of the year, the Tigers bowing out from the first round.
Australia came to town and repeated the African's trick but Bangladesh were expected to win in Zimbabwe. That however didn't come to pass when Brian Vitori kept them nailed in the first two games while Mushfiqur's Bevan-esque century in the crucial third game went in vain.
Against West Indies at home, the batting remained the trouble-maker with none of the top-order contributing when it mattered. Shakib however made the series look respectable when his 4-16 had the visitors bowled out for 61 in the third ODI. But in the next series, the Tigers were mauled from pillar to post in the first two games with the third one seemingly lost to a power failure midway through the Tigers' chase.
The batsmen's failure remained the recurring theme of the year.

DREAM START AND BUST
The new skipper Mushfiqur began his tenure in dramatic fashion when he smashed a six off the second last ball against West Indies. It was just reward for the man who had taken Bangladesh so close in the Harare game.
Mushfiqur's dramatic stroke over mid-wicket offered a lot of hope but in their only other Twenty20 encounter, Pakistan sunk them like a toy battleship after making a slow start.
The Tigers had all to play for when they chased 136 but Shahid Afridi & Co were too hot to handle on a turning track.