It's Shakib Al Hasan's world... or at least it's his World Cup — Internet The Oval in South London is just four-and-a-half mile away from the Lord's Cricket Ground. In the course of their 33-day campaign in this World Cup, to complete the journey, Bangladesh travelled a roller-coaster.
Bangladesh team is set to return home today (Sunday) after their World Cup mission. The Tigers were scheduled to fly from London Heathrow Airport at 10.15 pm (British time) on Saturday and land the country at 5.20 pm (Bangladesh Standard Time) today (Sunday).
Bangladesh impressed during wins over South Africa and the West Indies and put in a spirited effort against defending champions Australia.
Bangladesh powered to the second highest run chase in World Cup history as Shakib Al Hasan's brilliant century clinched a remarkable seven-wicket win over the West Indies.
The Tigers fought back to limit India to 314 for nine in Birmingham after Rohit Sharma's 104 but they could only manage 286 all out despite 66 from star batsman Shakib Al Hasan.
The Bangladesh flag is flying well and truly high at the World Cup. 'Rise of the Tigers' is indeed happening. They overcame South Africa, West Indies and came close to beating New Zealand and Australia, and had a match abandoned without a ball being bowled against Sri Lanka.
Fielding major letdowns
Nevertheless, overall, Bangladesh had a patchy World Cup, despite the heroics of Shakib Al Hasan. Their batting did a decent job but the bowling in the first 20 overs and fielding were the major letdowns. They dropped eight catches in the tournament and the ground fielding was not up to the mark in most of the matches.
Hence, they failed to generate any sort of momentum as a team.
Not good performance in new-ball attack
The absence of an 'X-factor' in the bowling department was always a concern for Bangladesh coming into this World Cup. And as the tournament progressed, they were continuously exposed. Someone like Mustafizur Rahman took quite a few matches to attain form. Though the left-armer finished the World Cup with 20 scalps, 10 of those came in the last two games. Mostly he was effective in the death overs, whereas leaked a lot of runs earlier on.
When it comes to the new-ball attack, Bangladesh were not good performing teams in this World Cup. For the major part of their campaign, Mortaza shared the new ball alongside young Mohammad Saifuddin. Mortaza was clearly the weak link in the attack, finishing the event with just one wicket in eight games and gave away 6.44 runs per over on an average. Also, it was unfortunate that for the major part of their campaign, their fastest bowler Rubel Hossain was kept out of the eleven. Though, in the later spells, Saifuddin did make an impact and picked up crucial breakthroughs. As a result, in the end, his post-tournament figures looked quite decent - 13 wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 7.18.
Spinners did a good job
The spinners, meanwhile, did a good holding job despite the wickets not offering much assistance. Shakib's left-arm spin (11 wickets in eight matches with an economy of 5.39) was Bangladesh's go-to option whenever they needed a breakthrough in the middle overs. He was well supported by Mehidy Hasan (six wickets in seven matches with an economy rate of 5.08) and Mossadek Hossain (three wickets in seven games with an economy of 5.97).
Batting suffered inconsistencies, except Shakib
In the batting department, Bangladesh were clearly over dependent on Shakib. Along with all the scalps, the southpaw also had 606 runs in this World Cup with an average of 96.03, which included two centuries and five fifties.
Barring Shakib, and to some extent Mushfiqur Rahim (367 runs in eight innings with an average of 52.42), none of the other batsmen were consistent enough. Especially, Tamim Iqbal, who averaged just 29.37 and was a big let down.
In the middle, youngsters like Liton Das, Mohammad Mithun and Mosaddek failed to justify their talent, despite getting ample opportunities. Even with all his experience, Mahmudullah did not have the kind of impact which was expected of him.
Overall, Bangladesh had only performed in patches. There were sparks in between; like the innings Saifuddin played against India, but those never got ignited. Interestingly, barring the game against England and Pakistan, Bangladesh were extremely competitive against all the other teams.
But points are given for winning matches, not just for being competitive on the field. Hence, the seventh position perhaps rightly justifies their campaign.
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