In his short career, Mustafizur Rahman has already scalped some of the great batsmen in the modern era. Starting with Shahid Afridi in his first Twenty20 international little over a year ago, Mustfiz’ impressive haul in international cricket and domestic Twenty20 tournaments includes the names of Rohit Sharma, Chris Gayle, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Steven Smith, Shane Watson and Virat Kohli.
With little luck he could have added Brendon McCullum’s name to this list during Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Friday Indian Premier League match against Gujarat Lions as Shikhar Dhawan dropped the former New Zealand captain off his very first ball of the match.
Ravindra Jadeja may not be rated as good a batsman as Rohit, Gayle, Amla, de Villiers. But he must be now the most favourite victim of the prodigious Bangladeshi left-arm pacer having scalped him five times in their six meetings.
The only time Mustafiz could not dismiss Jadeja was in the Asia Cup opener in Dhaka when the Indian all-rounder did not require to face a ball.
Mustafiz dismissed Jadeja in their first meeting in June last year when he made a triumphant debut in one-day international with 5-50 in Dhaka. Jadeja could score just one run facing Mustafiz’ three deliveries in the match. He did nothing better in the next match scoring five off 13 balls against Mustafiz before being dismissed.
India lost both the matches to Bangladesh, which resulted in their first ever series loss to their small neighbour. Jadeja bore the brunt of criticism for his poor batting and was dropped from the starting lineup for the next match, which India won to restore some pride.
India successfully negotiated Mustafiz in the Asia Cup opener when Jadeja was spared by the left-arm pacer and the only time. In their next meeting against Bangladesh in the final of the Asia Cup Mustafiz did not play due to injury.
He returned in time to face India in the World Twenty20 in what turned out to be an epic contest with India winning by just one run. Despite the heartbreaking loss, Mustafiz made his mark in the match taking the wicket of Rohit and Jadeja.
It was the fourth time Mustafiz took the wicket of Rohit in five matches to trigger a debate whether the Bangladesh pacer made the Indian opener his bunny. But Rohit has had at least some success against Mustafiz in the Asia Cup opener, something that Jadeja never had.
Rohit also somehow could deny Mustafiz his wicket in their only meeting in the Indian Premier League so far, but Jadeja could not do that either. He was clean bowled by Mustafiz in their first meeting in IPL at Rajkot after scoring just six runs off seven balls against the paceman.
Jadeja was bowled the third time by Mustafiz in less than two months on Friday when his collection was one run off two balls against Mustafiz. In all competitions, which included two ODIs, oneT20I and two IPL matches, Mustafiz sent down 30 deliveries to Jadeja, conceded just 16 runs against him and dismissed the left-hander five times.
Cricket saw many stories of bowler making a particular batsman his bunny. Glen McGrath dismissed Michael Atherton 19 times in 17 matches, Courtney Walsh (17 dismissal in 27 matches) and Curtly Ambrose (17 dismissal in 26 matches) enjoyed similar success against the former England captain. But Atherton was not the only batsman who showed weakness against a particular bowler.
Alec Bedser, once made Arthur Morris his favourite victim taking his wicket 18 times in 21 matches while Malcolm Marshall dismissed Graham Gooch 16 times in 21 matches.
It remains to be seen if Mustafiz can enjoy similar success against Jadeja in the long run. But at the moment it is at least safe to argue that Mustafiz has already made the Indian all-rounder his favourite victim.
-With New Age input
