21 for 2? No problem

PARTNERS IN RHYME: Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim (R) and Anamul Haque are milking runs during a match-winning third wicket stand of 174 runs against West Indies yesterday. Photo: STAR

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal had scored five consecutive half-centuries leading up to the second ODI against West Indies. The first of those was in the Asia Cup match against Pakistan in Dhaka in March, nine months ago. So it was hard to imagine Bangladesh would get off to a good start or make a competitive score without Tamim's contribution, especially with their champion cricketer Shakib Al Hasan not there to shore up the middle-order.
Since Shakib's debut in August 2006, Bangladesh have scored 250-plus runs in ODIs 23 times, yesterday's match being the 24th. Only twice -- against Zimbabwe in 2009 and against England in 2010 -- had they done so with both Tamim and Shakib scoring less than 30. In 15 of the other games, at least one of the two scored a fifty. At the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadum in Khulna yesterday, Tamim went in the fourth over of the match, caught at deep square leg off a pull off Andre Russell for five. Hearts stopped, heads dropped in the stands.
But this series seems to be about breaking old perceptions, a trend started in earnest in March. Another wicket, that of Naeem Islam's, fell with the score on 21. From there Anamul Haque -- playing only his second match -- and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim put together Bangladesh's highest partnership for the third wicket, falling short of Habibul Bashar and Rajin Saleh's all-wicket record of 175 by just one run. More importantly, they scored those runs at a fair clip -- 174 off 29.5 overs -- which was crucial in compensating for the loss of Tamim and to set up an imposing total to put the likes of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels under pressure.
The aggression did not drop for a moment. In the over following Naeem's dismissal, the eighth of the innings, Anamul hit a beautifully-timed flick off Russell to the square-leg boundary. Another boundary followed off the opener's bat in the next over, flayed through the covers off Ravi Rampaul.
The message was clear -- 'our best batsman may have gone and you may have had us 21 for two, but it's not time for backward steps yet'.
The feature of the match-changing partnership was that it was controlled aggression through which they got on top of their higher-ranked opponents. As well as the 19 boundaries hit, there were 64 singles and five twos. Mushfiqur and Anamul did what the West Indies failed to do in the first match and later yesterday -- milk the bowling when boundary balls were not on offer.
When they were on offer the duo took full toll, as in the 18th over from off-spinner Sunil Narine, whose unhappy tour continued with a wicketless display. Narine dropped a touch short outside off stump and Mushfiqur used the pace of it to beat the point fielder and let it racing to the boundary. The next ball he swept over square-leg for a six. In the next over by Rampaul, who was the best bowler on display, the duo hammered three boundaries off the rare bad balls he bowled. By then West Indies were well and truly chasing the game.
Even when the boundaries were not on offer, the two batsmen displayed the suppleness of their wrists to conjure them, guiding the spinners and at times the faster men to the third man fence with deft late cuts.
Skipper Mushfiqur was the aggressor, scoring 79 off 87 balls with eight fours and a six to allow newcomer Anamul to score at his own pace and complete what was to be a match-winning hundred. But it was the partnership that really won the match, and as importantly sent a message to the opponents that the team is not dependent on any one man. It is a piece of information that will take time to get used to.