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ICC T20 World Cup 2021

World Cup Dreams Of Bangladesh Dashed For Poor Fielding

Saleque Sufi | banglanews24.com
Update: 2021-10-30 12:08:24
World Cup Dreams Of Bangladesh Dashed For Poor Fielding [photo collected]

West Indies VS Bangladesh Match Played At Abu Dhavi on 29 October 2021 
West Indies 142/7 (Nicholas Pooran 40, Roston Chase 39, Jason Holder 15*, Shoriful Islam 2/20, Mahedi Hasan 2/27, Mustafizur Rahman 2/43, Taskin Ahmed 0/17) 
Bangladesh 139/5 (Liton K Das 44, Mahmudullah Riad 31*, Mohammad Naim 17, Soumya Sarkar 17) 
Bangladesh Lost by 3 Runs

Reigning Champions West Indies choked Bangladesh by 3 runs in a nail-biting encounter between the two bottom of points table teams West Indies and Bangladesh sent into bat West Indies managed scoring 142/7 blasting 72 runs in the last 6 overs. 

Bangladesh need 49 in the last 6 could score only 46 and lost by 3 runs with victory on sight. Mahmudullah required 4 runs in the last ball which he failed to connect. Bangladesh could score 139/5. Losing 3 matches in Super 12 on the trot Bangladesh is virtually knocked out from the world cup. Even after this solitary win reigning champion West Indies may also exit from the tournament for poor run rate. 

Lot of reasons can be attributed for dismal performances of Bangladesh. Some analyst wrote" Bangladesh Boat Capsized After Reaching The Shore." Many would blame well set Mahmudullah for his failure for taking the team home. But it was the atrocious fielding that let the team down. Great bowling by Taskin, Mahedi, Shakib and Shoriful kept free hitting West Indians honest in the first 6 overs power play. They wre 29/2. But the same team strking 72 off the last 6 overs put up a challenging score of 142/7. Nicholas Pooran scoring 40 could be out on 2 if Liton did not miss an easy stumping off the bowling of Shakib. Mahedi dropped Roston Chase on 27. Even Holder who struck deadly blows in the last over was dropped by Afif on 1. If one of three chances could be taken the fate of the match could be different . When Bangladesh batted 6’ 7” man mountain Jason Holder from the boundary line jumped up and picked a over boundary bound strike of Liton Das off Bravo. That sealed the fate of the match.

Anyway in the tension packed Do or Die match Bangladesh looked sharp as they cornered free striking West Indies 4/62 till the 13th over. Keiron Pollard was also in the dug out  retired hurt at that stage . If the chance offered by Pooran and Chase were taken West Indies could be booked below 100 . If even Holder could be returned on 1 West Indies could not go beyond 120. But instead Pooran blasted four sixes and a four in his 22 balls 40, Chase scored 39 and Holder blasted unbeaten 15 in only 5 balls. 142/7 on low , slow wicket was challenging.

Yet Bangladesh batted extremely well and was looking good. Shakib was asked to open the innings for the first time in his 367th T20 match. He failed. Soumya and Liton adding 30 runs in 31 balls kept Bangladesh in the hunt. Again Mushfique fell cheaply to his reverse sweep. Liton Mahmudullah rekindled the dream. The target was within sight. A clean strike of Liton (44) was on its way across the fence when tall Holder playing his first match jumped and plucked a good catch. Any other less height fielder would not have grabbed it. Still Bangladesh required only 4 off the last ball which Mahmudullah failed to connect. Bangladesh lost the match from a touching distance
Losing such a match breaks many hearts. But Bangladesh lost the match earlier. Failure of restricting opponents in the death overs (West Indies blasted 72 runs in the last 6 overs), dropping catches, missing stumping chances, failure in power hitting in the death overs(scored 46/1 in the last 6 overs) were among reasons for Bangladesh dreams getting dashed. Bangladesh would leak wounds for a long l time. They can only blame them for their present state. There would be lot of blaming and counter blaming. But bottom line is “Bangladesh is not a team to advance from the group”. Nothing can grow well beyond its reach. 

From the state of the group it appears that the team winning the match today between Australia and England would advance to Semi Final. Even South Africa if they win big would have their opportunity. Curtain dropped on Bangladesh; West Indies may also have to wrap up the mission after super 12. 

BDST: 1208 HRS, OCT 30, 2021
SMS

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