Opener Tamim Iqbal gave his home crowd a big cheer when he unleashed on the Zimbabwean bowlers to score a blazing half-century in the fifth and final one-day international in Chittagong on Sunday.
Tamim Iqbal’s stylish 95 off 96 balls blew away the chances of Zimbabwe to level the series which also enriched his trophy cupboard with the man-of-the-match, fastest 50, most sixes and the highest scorer awards.
It also improved his own record of maximum sixes in a one-day innings for Bangladesh. His seven sixes in the innings is one more than what he had achieved during the course of his 154 against the same opponents at Bulawayo last year.
With some additional help from Lady Luck it could have been even better. His attempted eighth six ended up with a catch at deep midwicket, which also denied him of his fourth ODI century.
‘When I was on 95, I could have probably got that five singles easily for my century but it didn’t happen and I have to work on this,’ Tamim said at the post-match press briefing.
‘It obviously hurts that’s I couldn’t score the century, to tell you the truth, I get really nervous when I am in the nineties, I don’t know why but I have to work on this,’ he added.
‘I have to learn from my mistakes, I am not going to say that what I have done was right, that was definitely a mistake and I will try not to repeat the same mistake in the future,’ he said.
The start of Tamim’s innings was also sketchy as he had a run of bad luck throughout the series, in which he had been given two dubious LBWs, in the first and third ODIs.
His fate reversed in the final match as he escaped with the help of some luck early in his innings and he was also helped by Christopher Mpofu, who grassed a sharp return catch when he was on 24.
Tamim continued to take his chances, treating the spinners with disregard and frequently targeting the area between deep midwicket and long-off. He also had mistimed his shots on a few occasions, revealing the slowness of the pitch.
‘I love to play my shots and I actually hit seven over-boundaries by playing the same shot. I like to utilise my batting strength [which is playing my shots] while I bat,’ said the swashbuckling opener.
Tamim started his onslaught from the seventh over as he needed a little time to settle after a quick dismissal of Imrul Kayes in the very first over. Almost all the shots by Tamim cleared the boundary rope and with the urgency that he was batting to get to the modest target is definitely worth mentioning.
‘I really wanted to score today and I really worked hard for my first fifty, and for the last fifty I just did whatever I liked,’ said an ecstatic Tamim.
‘I felt that it was hard to score a single and it was easy to hit a six. I was really upset for the past couple of days because of the slow outfield as I am one of those batsmen who feel bad when they hit a ball and it does not clear the boundary,’ he pointed out.
It was extremely important for Bangladesh that Tamim has found his form and rhythm in this series, because for Bangladesh to put on a fighting score for the opponent to chase they definitely need his services since the top-order batsmen of Bangladesh are still sloppy in their performance.
‘That’s the most important thing, I think. Since the day I scored 44, I felt very comfortable and I felt the same rhythm that I had before I got injured and if I can hold onto the rhythm I think I would do well,’ he added.
