Bangladesh 217/9 (Anamul Haque 109, Tamim Iqbal 26, Nasir Hossain 26, DJ Bravo 4/32 ) lost to West Indies 219/7 ( KA Pollard 89 ,D Ramadin 74 ,JO Holder 22* ) by three Wickets
When a team after scoring a moderate 217 gets top half of its opponents back to the pavilion for mere 34, that team is expected to win in nine out of ten cases. Unfortunately in case of Bangladesh that exception happened yesterday at National Cricket Stadium, St George's, Grenada . Flamboyant KJ Pollard blasted 5 fours and 6 sixes in a match winning innings of 89 and his partner wicket keeper D Ramadin scored 74 . Together they build the Carribean Catsle in the ruins with a 145 runs sixth wicket partnership. West Indies went 1-0 up in the three match ODI series.
Bangladesh was put into bat and it managed to score 217 /9 in its allotted overs thanks to a patient 109 by otherwise dashing opening batsman Anamul Haque. His monumental effort till the last ball of the innings got very little support from most of his other partners apart from brief opening partnership with Tamim and in the sixth wicket with Nasir Hossain. 5 Bangladeshi batsmen could not even reach double figures.
There was no venom in the wicket still Bangladeshi batsmen failed miserably against gentle medium pace of DJ Bravo bowling wicket to wicket. Bravo took 4/32 in his seven overs and accounted for most of the miseries of Bangladeshis. None of the batsmen looked at all fluent or were in their elements to support Anamul. The score of 217 was at least 30 runs short to challenge the strong West Indian batting line up. Playing a cautious and calculative innings Anamul scored 109 in 138 balls with 11 fours and a six.
He got out on the last ball of the innings. He and Tamim put on 41 runs in the opening partnerships which looked promising till Tamim got out to tall Holder losing patience and playing a loose stroke. Bangladesh played all four openers for the reasons only known to the think tank. Imrul Kayes and Shamsur Rahman failed to deliver and soon Bangladesh started struggling. Mominul or Mithun could be better choice in the situation. Mushfique also did not stay longer.
Nasir gave some support to Anamaul. But then run rate dipped and after Nasir too lost his wicket at 194 in the 47thover very little was left for a substantial innings. Anamul tried till the last over to lift the tempo and got out on the last ball of the innings. None of the West Indian bowlers including Bravo taking 4/32 looked unplayable. Bangladeshi batsmen rather threw away their wickets through wrong strokes looking panicked. 218 was never a challenging target for West Indies.
Yet Bangladesh bowlers made great start .Evergreen Mashrafee bowled with his hearts out teasing and tormenting the Caribbean with his seam and swing .Gayle was removed early by Mashrafee. Mushfique started rotating his bowlers and got immediate success. Edwards, Bravo and Simmons came and went and by 14th over half of the West Indian team was back in the pavilion with mere 34 on the board. But then tigers lost their grip on the match as Pollard and Ramadin started counter attacking. They put on 145 Runs at almost run a ball to take the match away. Perhaps Mushfique did not use his young pacer Taskin at the right time. He could be utilized a bit earlier after the top order was removed and Alamin was bowling well. Young Taskin was used when Pollard and Ramadin were attacking. Bangladesh missed veteran Razzak in that period. His arm balls could be useful at that stage. By the time Sohag removed Ramadin and Alamin got rid of Pollard it was very late. Holder and Narine took West Indies past the target with more than 10 overs to spare. Bangladesh lost a great opportunity to winning.
Bangladesh got defeated but not disgraced. But the batsmen apart from Anamul did not give good account of themselves .Most of them looked a bit panicked. The West Indian bowling was not unplayable. There was no demon in the wicket. We found little logic in playing four openers and not finding confidence on a middle order batsman. Not playing experienced Razzak was also a mistake. Not exploiting a situation at West Indies down 5/34 was a great opportunity lost. Why Mushfique tried with part timers to contain flamboyant Pollard rather than relying on front line bowlers? His handling of bowling and field setting was pretty ordinary.
For Bangladesh such opportunity rarely comes and when it comes it must be grabbed with both hands. We hope Bangladesh can only improve from here on taking lessons from the lost opportunity. Batsmen must bat with a plan and bat with positive intent. Mushfique must marshal his bowling resources a bit more intelligently. Mashrafee and Alamin bowled well. Mashrafee was deadly accurate and Alamin was penetrative. Taskin was not handled properly by Mushfique. He is a new ball baller and must get an early opportunity if he is played at all. There was no point playing 4 specialist openers in ODI .It was a mere waste of middle order batting resources.
BDST: 1928 HRS, AUG 21, 2014
