Incredible Nasir scripts big win

A NASIR SHOW: He frustrated the hosts with a swashbuckling century and flummoxed them with a game-changing five-wicket haul. Cricket may be a team sport, but the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore witnessed a one-man show yesterday. Photos: PTI

Half way through Bangladesh A's innings, with the visitors struggling at 82 for 5, one would have presumed that Mominul Haque and co were on their way to losing the one-day series against their Indian counterparts with a match to spare.

After all, Nasir Hossain and Liton Das had just shared a brilliant 120-run stand the day before. You couldn't have possibly expected them to conjure something up again. But that's exactly what they did.

From 82 for 5, Liton and Nasir took the visitors past 150. Liton departed soon after, but Nasir stood his ground. Fresh from a half-century in the second one day, Nasir wanted more.

He shared two more half-century stands with Arafat Sunny and Rubel Hossain, to take his side's total to a respectable 252. The fact that Arafat and Rubel scored just 17 and 9, speaks a lot about how Nasir dominated those partnerships.

His unbeaten 102 off 96 balls included 12 fours and a six and gave the visitors a glimmer of hope. Considering the way the hosts had belted Bangladesh's bowlers to post a mammoth 322 in the first one-day, this score seemed below-par.

But then again, Nasir had other plans. With momentum on his side, Nasir tweaked his way through India's batting line-up; and he got ample support from a ferocious Rubel Hossain, who according to the management bowled with plenty of heart.

After Rubel removed Mayank Agarwal in the eighth over, skipper Unmukt Chand and Manish Pandey steadied the innings with an 88-run stand. Nasir was introduced and he immediately got rid of the captain. Mominul Haque brought in Rubel to keep up the pressure and the plan worked. Rubel removed Pandey three overs later. What followed next was a flurry of wickets as India collapsed from 119 for 1 to 157 for 8.

The hosts didn't know what to do against the disciplined bowling partnership. If they were flummoxed by Nasir's line and length, then they were bamboozled by Rubel's pace. Nasir finished with a five-for, while Rubel scalped four wickets. India A were eventually bundled out for 187 in 42.2 overs and lost the game by 65 runs.

As good as Nasir's performance was yesterday, it definitely wasn't something that emerged out of the blue. Ever since Nasir came back to the team after getting dropped during the Zimbabwe series in November last year, he has been in tremendous touch.

"To be honest, yes, I love batting at that position [of a finisher]. I have played many innings like this earlier in my career. So that experience helped me a lot. My main motive was to bat the full 50 overs, irrespective of who was with me at the other end. When I was batting, the pitch was favouring the batsmen too. At least, that's what I felt," said Nasir at the post-match press conference yesterday.

“I always enjoy batting with Liton. To be honest, there wasn't any target in our minds. We thought of playing out the overs instead of looking for runs, and build a solid partnership. And luckily, that worked well for us today," he added.

Furthermore, Nasir said that despite posting a below-par total, the players had the belief that they could bounce back in the series.

 The third and series-deciding one-dayer takes place at the same venue tomorrow.

SCORES IN BRIEF

BANGLADESH A: 252 for 8 in 50 overs (Soumya 24, Anamul 34, Liton 45, Nasir 102; Dhawan 3-44)

INDIA A: 187 all out in 42.2 overs (Chand 56, Gurkeerat 34; Rubel 4-33, Nasir 5-36, Al-Amin 1-35)

Result: Bangladesh A won by 65 runs