Three balls of darkness: The Bangladesh-India match

Bangladesh cricket lovers were never as disappointed as they were the evening Bangladesh lost to India by one run. They expressed their disappointment in so many ways, some in ways unprintable. Many said that for them it was a sleepless night as it happens in the case of a death in the family.
My disappointment was as deep as the rest of my fellow Bangladeshis with a slightly different perspective. In fact, I felt some pleasure and I need to explain why. I watch the World Cup 20/20 matches on Star 1 TV channel that has brought some of the best former Test cricketers as commentators and experts. Before the Bangladesh-India match, one such star, India's former devastating opening batsman Virendra Sehwag, was speaking to viewers with Harsha Bhogley conducting the programme and Bret Lee as the other expert.
I admired Sehwag as a batsman for his capacity of shredding even the best bowlers to pieces in all the three formats of the game. That such a hero to many could be such a mean cricket expert is a fact not known to many although some Bangladeshi cricket fans have been hurt in the past by his uncomplimentary comments about Bangladesh cricket. Sehwag just dismissed the Bangladesh team as worthless that should not fancy winning against India that he placed on a lofty pedestal for the Bangladesh team to worship. His comments visibly embarrassed Harsha. A gentleman, all he could muster to try and make palatable Sehwag's obnoxious comments was to mention that the comments were his own. His body language too was offensive. In those brief comments, he underlined that his cricketing abilities apart, he neither has class nor education.
After the game, I felt Bangladesh team's efforts on the field were enough to make Sehwag bite the dust. That thought helped me deal with the deep sorrow. The Bangladesh team literally brought down the India team from the lofty pedestal where Sehwag had placed it and made it appear as a team that consisted, apart from Ashwin and Dhoni, of novices playing against an established cricket team. In fact, for 39.3 overs of the match, the Indians looked like losers. The way Yuvuraj was gobbled up by Mahmudullah, a part-time off spinner, underlined the nervousness that had prevailed in the Indian team throughout the game.
The Bangladesh team lost the game not by any stretch of the imagination for the way India played but because of mistakes on its part, in particular, the suicidal ones in the last 3 balls of the game. When the final over started, Bangladesh needed 11 runs from 6 balls with Mahmudullah and Mushfiq in the crease and fairly set. In that over, Mushfiq hit two fours and when he faced the 4th ball with the score 145/6, the team needed just 2 runs. It was a position from which there was no way Bangladesh could lose.
Then came the "3 balls of darkness" for Bangladesh. Mushfiq after those 2 boundaries tried to win the game with a six from the 4th ball when a nudge for a single would have levelled the scores assuring a tie and a Super Over. In two balls, he and Mahmudullah could have as easily as easiness can be found the single to win the game. Instead, Mushfiq and Mahmudullah in trying to win the match with a six holed out in the deep in successive balls with the score frozen at 145/6 and 2 runs still needed to win!
At that stage, Captain Cool Dhoni showed his real class as a captain that alone had kept the Indians in the game. He called his fielders in for the last ball so that his team could save the single needed for the Super Over. He took off the glove so he could prevent the single and run out the batsman in case Hom missed the ball and ran the single. It was there that the Bangladesh team missed another trick. Hom who faced the last ball should have asked Mustafizur to start running with the delivery of the ball that he did not. Thus, when Pandaya bowled and Hom missed, Dhoni had gathered the ball while running towards the wicket and Mustafizur unable to get to the batting end because he had started running that crucial fraction of a second late because he was unaware of what was expected of him.
Bangladesh, in fact, should not have allowed India to come back in the game after the brilliant manner in which it had bowled and fielded. Experts had said before the game that on the Bangalore pitch where India had been put to bat, the par score was 180 and India would need at least 160 to be in the game. Instead, once the Indians batted, they floundered against Bangladesh's superb bowling and following a few flashes from Sharma, Dhawan and Koli, were restricted at 146/7 and made to look like a less than average team.
The pitch was not the best for batting but with the Indian team visibly nervous, all Bangladesh needed was a cool-headed approach. Tamim whose tremendous batting abilities have been amply underlined once more in the competition needed to stick around to carry the team over the winning line. Instead, he seemed in a hurry and was out after giving two easy chances. His impatience could be explained only if the chasing target was 180 or more. Then for reasons only he can explain, with Bangladesh on target at 69/3 in 9.2 overs, Mashrafe came to bat and hit a six and departed. Mahmudullah, who is the best batsman in the team for both defensive and aggressive play, should have come so that with Shakib, the two could carry the team nearer to its destination. Mashrafe's decision made no sense at all.
Shakib has top class cricketing sense but at times inexplicably he loses his sense of direction. He was batting beautifully on 22 with the score at 95/4 in 12.1 over. Dhoni knew how important it was to get his wicket to come back into the game and gambled with Ashwin's last over and the pitch helping his spin. Shakib just needed to play out the over and with Ashwin out of the attack, make it impossible for the Indians to have any chance. Instead, Shakib casually went forward to Ashwin's first ball and gave a dolly catch to slip fulfilling the bowler's frequent and well-known ability to get a wicket with the first ball of a new spell.
Dhoni's masterstroke in captaining with full control was in holding back Bumrah, the best bowler in the Indian team, for the crucial 19th over. In that over he conceded just 5 runs, setting the drama for the final over that left Bangladesh needing 11 runs. In contrast, Mashrafe gave the 19th over to the weakest link in the team, Al-Amin Hossain, who conceded 14 runs that made the crucial difference that was another major error in Mashrafe's role as the captain.
Bangladesh did not make to the semi-finals of the ongoing 20/20 World Championship. Yet it has established unequivocally that in limited-overs cricket it is as good a team as any in the world. Nevertheless, there are many problems in the team. Some of the key players need to be shaken from their complacency and the captain finally needs to rest.  By the way the team is chosen, it is often evident that there are players who are there for unknown reasons. Why would Sovagata Hom be in the team when Nasser Hossain sits in the dugout? These are crucial questions and unless addressed properly, Bangladesh may not be able to prove itself the same way it has in the current world championship in the Champions Trophy to be played next year in England.

The writer is a retired Ambassador.
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