The round of super four exposed the true depth and diversity of teams on the teasing and testing condition of desert climate.
All round India crushed clueless Bangladesh but Pakistan had to struggle all the way in over powering impressive Afghanistan. India avalanched Bangladesh by 7 wickets while Afghanistan went down by 3 wickets. Of the four teams India looked the strongest while Bangladesh proved to be the weakest. There appeared very little difference between Pakistan and Afghanistan. With a formidable batting unit and competent bowling combination India appears to be strongest contender of the tournament.
True Bangladesh suffers a great deal for the absence of its champion opener Tamim Iqbal and 50-75% fitness of Shakib and Mushfique. But a team aspiring for winning a major tournament like Asia cup should have depth and diversity of quality players in the team. India rested arguably the best batsman of the world .Yet came to UAE playing for months in a completely different climatic condition in England. Excuses for professional international cricketers playing ODI are not acceptable.
Bangladesh played two poor games against Afghanistan and India on consecutive days and moves to edges for getting lost before the finals. In this form it is highly unlikely that Bangladesh can win even one of the remaining two matches against Afghanistan and Pakistan. After three matches played by each team it appears that India is well equipped to go to the final and it may be either Pakistan or Afghanistan which would be their likely opponent in the final.
India Avalanched Bangladesh
India 174/3 (Rohit Sharma 83*, Shikhar Dhawan 40, MS Dhoni 33) beat Bangladesh 173 All Out (Mehedy Miraj 42, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza 26, Mahmudullah Riyad 25, Mushfiqur Rahim 21, Ravindra Jadeja 4/29, Bhubaneswar Kumar 3/32, Jaspreet Bumrah 3/37) by 7 wickets
Terrific India had their all guns blazing against panicky Bangladesh. Absence of inform quality opening batsman Tamim, But a team vying for a top spot must possess quality players for such contingency management. The main stay of the team appeared to unsettle the batting. In business as usual Tamim plays the sheet anchor role and rest of the batting rotates around him. Bangladesh for a long time now struggles finding a competent opening partner of Tamim. The team management could not find his partner experimenting with many.
Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Anamul Huq none could settle in unimaginative chopping and changing. Against a very strong well prepared Indian bowling attack risking raw openers like Liton and Shanto proved disastrous. Bangladesh made a poor start being asked to bat on a feather bed, bald Dubai wicket. Why not Mithun was let opening the innings instead of Shanto? Playing Mithun at the top and including Ariful down the order could be better choice.
Risking the injured top quality all rounder Shakib at three also appeared a huge risk for us. What he might say and whatever little successes he achieved batting at three Shakib is never an ideal top order batsman. He is ideal for number 5 where he can play his trademark strokes. On the day he made the same mistake and sacrificed his wicket in gay abandon. He already took 13 off the Jadeja over. At that stage the situation demanded discretion. Yet he attempted to blast the quality spinner out of the attack and paid dearly losing his wicket. Top all rounder of the world often does not put price on his wicket and the team suffers.
Mahmudullah has sound technique and cool temperament. In the world cup 2015 he held the key batting at number three. In this batting line up in the present state of the team Shakib could deliver much better batting down the order at number 5. Loss of openers early and then losing Shakib hurt the team. Mushfique and Mahmudullah tried steadying the rocking boat. Mahmudullah got a raw deal. If not Mithun wasted the DRS Mahmudullah could get its benefit. The ball definitely touched his bat before getting struck on his pad. Mahmudullah was ruled LBW.
In the desperate situation of the team young Mehedy Miraj and brave Mashrafe put in their best efforts in producing some resistance. Yest 173 all out appeared 50-60 runs too less in challenging strong Indian batting. Quality Indian seamers Kumar and Bumrah consistently bowled on the right channel and moved the ball off the seam. The techniques of Bangladesh batting were severely tested.
Bumrah and Kumar dismantled the top order and after Jadeja melting the middle order the pacers in the death overs delivers the killers blows. Mehedy Miraj and Mashrafe proved that there was no devil in the wicket. Bangladesh top order simply proved spineless and lacked application. There was only one partnership of 66 between Miraj (42) and Mashrafe (26) showing some resistance .Otherwise the score could not even reach beyond 150.
A target of 174 on the easy paced Dubai wicket was never going to test strong Indian batting. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan went about the business batting merrily. Bangladeshi pacers could not bowl on the right channel like Bumrah and Kumar. The opening partnership produced 61 by 15th over before Shakib trapped Dhawan right in front for 40. Rohit looked elegant and graceful in his unbeaten 83. Dhoni had some useful batting practice.
India won big by 7 wickets with almost 13 overs to spare. Getting Dhoni’s wicket Mashrafe went 1 wicket closer to his 250 ODI wickets tally. Now Bangladesh would require winning against Afghanistan and Pakistan to stay alive in the tournament. Soumya and Kayes have been called in. One of them if not both should have been there immediately after Tamim got injured.
BDST: 1027 HRS, SEPT 22, 2018
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