Fielding the latest culprit of Tigers’ Kiwi woes
Bangladesh's five-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the second ODI at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch yesterday meant that the Tigers lost the three-match series with a game left to play.
A five-wicket win may sound a convincing victory but the margin fails to reflect how close the Tigers came to registering their first win against the Kiwis in their backyard.
Regardless of that fact, the records will still show that the Kiwis extended their home winning streak to 28-0 across formats against the Tigers, and 15-0 in ODIs.
The eight-wicket thumping in the first ODI in Dunedin was due to a batting debacle that saw the Tigers surrender to a formidable Kiwi pace attack for a meagre 131. And with the Bangladesh batsmen's history of failing on fast and bouncy tracks overseas, the prime focus since the first ODI was on the batsmen putting up a decent score that would at least leave the bowlers with something to defend.
However, it seemed that while focusing on batsmen doing their bit to bring bowlers into the game, the Bangladesh team completely ignored and forgot to cover the other crucial facet of the game -- their fielding.
It was a rare instance of Bangladesh batsmen coming up with a collaborative effort against New Zealand in their backyard. Skipper Tamim Iqbal's 78 at the top was well complemented by Mohammad Mithun's career-best unbeaten 73 off 57 deliveries that helped the Tigers put up a competitive score of 271 for six.
Collective effort was seen in the bowling too. The Tigers had reduced the hosts to 53 for three in 10.5 overs. Although a 113-run fourth-wicket stand between Devon Conway and skipper Tom Latham had swung the momentum back towards the hosts, a brilliant piece of fielding from Tamim -- a direct hit at the bowler's end -- in the 34th over offered renewed hope.
That bit of brilliance was the only moment of excellence in an otherwise lacklustre fielding effort. Just an over later, Mushfiqur Rahim failed to grab on to a regulation catch after pacer Taskin Ahmed had induced an edge off the bat of James Neesham on three. And again, in the very next over, off-spinner Mahedi Hasan dropped Latham off his own bowling when the eventual centurion was on 58.
Mushfiqur is undoubtedly one of the hardest-working players in the Tigers' unit. But it was not the only instance of him letting down the team with poor efforts behind the stumps. The 33-year-old has come under scrutiny multiple times in the past for his below-average glovework.
While those two mistakes could well have turned the game around on its head, there were some abysmal fielding errors -- from Mahmudullah Riyad and Mahedi -- made in the outfield that also contributed immensely to the outcome of the game.
And even though the burden of yesterday's defeat would have to be shared by the whole fielding unit, it may be time for the team management to fix the one issue -- that of replacing Mushfiqur as the wicketkeeper with a more proven and better gloveman in Liton -- that has repeatedly cost the Tigers dearly in the past.
SCORES IN BRIEF
Bangladesh: 271 for 6 in 50 overs (Tamim 78, Soumya 32, Mushfiqur 34, Mithun 73 not out, extras 24; Boult 1-49, Henry 1-48, Jamieson 1-36, Santner 2-51)
New Zealand: 275 for 5 in 48.2 overs (Guptill 20, Conway 72, Latham 110 not out, Neesham 30, extras 17; Mustafizur 2-62, Mahedi 2-42)
Result: New Zealand won by five wickets.
Player-of-the-match: Tom Latham.
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