There has been much talk of executing plans in the lead-up to Bangladesh’s ICC World Twenty20 encounter with Pakistan and if those plans were being executed when the Tigers took the field to defend an admirable total of 175 after a Shakib Al Hasan special, then there is cause for concern.
The first three overs went well with 23 runs coming off them and might have even netted the key wicket of Imran Nazir had Abul Hasan held on to a simple chance at mid-on. What happened thereafter can only be termed a vacation for common sense. Shafiul Islam had bowled four balls in the fourth over for only five runs. He then tried a bouncer that went down the leg side for five byes. The next was another short ball that Nazir, one of the better punishers of short bowling in the subcontinent, pulled for four. The last ball was a repeat, the result this time a six over midwicket.
Whether it was a pre-set plan for the pacers to start bowling short from then on is anyone’s guess, but the next over from Mashrafe Bin Mortaza produced fifteen, the last ball another bouncer that was hammered by Nazir for six.
A T20 match hinges on certain key moments, and after having restricted the Pakistani openers in the first three overs the Tigers lost that crucial segment of the game. Two or three more overs of tight line and length bowling could perhaps have put pressure on the Pakistan openers and resulted in some false shots. If it was just a lack of skill that let them down then it would have been acceptable, but it seemed that it was the mental side of their game that really fell short.
Abul Hossain, the third pacer in the team, tried to do the same thing and was equally punished.
If it was indeed a plan to bowl bouncers it was a foolish one, particularly because anyone involved with cricket had seen and should have learnt from Nazir’s exploits against the short ball during the Bangladesh Premier League T20 earlier this year. But to carry on with a foolish plan is even more blameworthy, and that is what Mashrafe and Shafiul were guilty of — persisting with their mode of attack even after being repeatedly dispatched for four and six.
T20 cricket is often denigrated as a lighter version of the real game, but it does promote and reward flexibility in thought and action. And cricket at large rewards those players who understand and accept their limitations — bowling bouncers continually when one does not have quite enough pace is a sign of ignoring those very limitations. After three months of playing T20s exclusively the Tigers do not seem to have taken that basic lesson to heart. Instead it is the well-worn tale of Shakib’s heroic exploits being wasted by his teammates not being mentally up to the mark as another tournament falls by the wayside.
-With The Daily Star input
