Tigers unearth pace options
The Bangladesh team management opted for five seamers in the eleven for the third and final ODI against Zimbabwe yesterday. Ariful Haque and Soumya Sarkar were the batting all-rounders coming in to supplement the usual group of three pacers -- a move to gauge the bench strength in pace bowling.
Although neither Ariful and Soumya displayed any bite and bowled just three and two overs respectively, left-arm seamer Abu Hider and Mohammad Saifuddin's bowling will surely impress the team management despite Zimbabwe posting a challenging total of 286 for five after being asked to bat.
The Bangladesh think tank is looking for a set of fast bowlers, much like they had discovered during 2014 and 2015 when pacers like Taskin Ahmed and Al-Amin Hossain emerged before Mustafizur Rahman took the world by storm. Only Mustafizur has survived from that group.
As things stand, the team have three pacers to count on -- skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur -- and the team management have their eyes on Hider and Saifuddin as Bangladesh whittle down their options for next summer's World Cup in pace-friendly England.
Hider, playing his second ODI after Mustafizur Rahman was rested for the yesterday's game, proved his ability and took the wicket of Zimbabwe skipper Hamilton Masakadza, who chopped onto the stumps while going for a drive on the up.
Hider conceded just 39 runs from nine overs -- one of which was a maiden -- and also managed to bowl 32 dot balls, the most by a Bangladesh bowler yesterday. He bent his back and managed to shape the ball into the right-hander with the new ball and with the old ball he bowled slower deliveries to good effect.
The 22-year-old also has good knowledge about bowling in the death overs. Hider kept the length fuller without providing much room to the batsmen, giving away just three runs in the 49th over of the innings with centurion Sean Williams at the crease.
Saifuddin, despite being a bit expensive as he conceded 51 from his 10 overs, has started to gain more confidence.
The youngster showed his ability with the new ball in the first spell, during which he gave away just 14 runs and picked up the first wicket of opener Cephas Zhuwao with his third ball of the match.
The 22-year-old, who took three wickets for 45 runs from nine overs in the second ODI, then showed how far he has come as a bowler with a mixture of slower balls and full-pitched deliveries culminating in a superb last over during which he conceded just four runs, even though he bowled four balls to the centurion.
With the World Cup in England next summer, the Tigers' think tank would love to provide these two seamers more confidence and create more variations in the pace bowling department.
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