The flashing blades of Sabbir Rahman and Naeem Islam took the country’s sports to a new height yesterday as their rescue act in Bangladesh’s five-wicket win over Afghanistan in the cricket final clinched the long cherished Asian Games gold medal for the first time.
Despite the Twenty20 competition’s second-string nature with a majority of smaller cricketing nations taking part, it was important to bring a gold — the ultimate prize in multi-sport event — to the country that has long starved of sporting excellence. The past decade has seen cricket take centre-stage and it was only fitting that the cricket team made a contribution to the medals’ tally.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and President Zillur Rahman congratulated the players and officlas of the cricket team for winning gold. In separate messages, they expressed hope that Bangladesh would be able to succeed further in sports and the government will give all out support for its development.
Back to the match and the differences between the two teams notwithstanding, the Guanggong International Cricket Stadium in Guangzhou was witness to a captivating encounter with the minnows almost pulling off a win.
With 44 runs required to win, Bangladesh lost Shuvogoto Hom in the 14th over, making way for young Sabbir to join the unbeaten Naeem at the crease. The duo looked the least bit perturbed as they went about reaching the 119-run target. In the penultimate over when 19 was needed for the gold, Sabbir first smashed off-spinner Karim Sadiq out of the stadium and then lofted him in the same direction for two consecutive sixes, swinging the game towards Bangladesh.
Sabbir, the little-known youngster, kept rotating the strike before Naeem Islam sealed the victory with a forehand smash down the ground off the impressive Hamid Hassan.
Naeem top-scored with an unbeaten 34 off 41 balls with the help of a six and three boundaries but it was Sabbir who had the most impact, smashing three sixes in his 18-ball 33.
For the valiant Afghans, the fairytale story of world cricket, a silver medal was an amazing achievement and they showed a lot of fight against their more illustrious opposition.
Defending their 118-8 in 20 overs, Mirwair Ashraf removed Nazimuddin early in the piece before Samiullah Shenwari ran out the other opener Mithun Ali for 22. Skipper Mohammad Ashraful followed soon after, falling to Sadiq before Hassan, the MCC-trained seamer, took the wicket of Faisal Hossain.
Earlier, Naeem, Ashraful and Shahadat Hossain took two wickets each as the Afghans struggled mostly against spin.
Asghar Stanikzai, the 23-year-old who batted without a helmet, struck 38 off 36 balls that included three boundaries and a six. Shabir Noori also made 25 off 19 balls with a six and three more boundaries.
