It was not long ago, Mashrafee bin Murtaza faced with a question exactly when he was planning to retire from Twenty20 International cricket, considering his age, lack of pace and reflex.
Mashrafee provided half the answer during the Asia Cup match against Pakistan when his two successive fours off Mohammad Amir turned the table in a close contest at Mirpur.Mashrafee may not have that spark with the ball and bat, but he still did not want to be the burden of the side or a sort of non-playing captain whose sole duty is just motivating the side.
After the Pakistan match he said that he will continue as long as he feels that he can make these little yet match winning contributions. Few people still had some doubts as they repeated the question again before the Asia Cup final.
For the doubters, Mashrafee came up with the other half of his answer during Bangladesh’s ICC World Twenty20 qualifier against Netherlands with a crucial over that turned out to be the game changer again.
Defending a modest score against an associate country, with Bangladesh under tons of pressure, Mashrafee bowled with such an authority during that over, it sparked a debate whether it is one of the finest in his long career.
When he took the ball Netherlands needed 42 from 24 balls, so it was not easy decision to bring himself in. Both Al-Amin Hossain and Taskin Ahmed had two overs left so Mashrafee could have easily opted for either of them as they are considered as the strike bowler of the team.
But he backed himself and bowled with his heart out to concede just three runs and claim the vital wicket of Van der Marwe to finally give Bangladesh some control in the game.
‘I was very confident about myself,’ Mashrafee said after the match. Twenty20 is all about momentum. I gave away just one run in my previous over, so I had the momentum with me.
‘I was thinking of Al-Amin or a spinner. But the in the end I decided to bowl myself. I could read the batsman well.
‘I knew even if I gave away seven or eight runs, it would not be a problem. Because in that case they would have to score around 35 runs in the last five [three] overs. It was never going to be easy for them.
‘We were looking to give them a target of 15 to 20 runs [in the last over]. They needed 17 finally. So we were successful in our plan. May be you guys were a bit more worried than me.I was not that worried,’ said Mashrafee.
His over received huge plaudits from both Netherlands captain Peter Borren and man of the match Tamim Iqbal.
‘He has been doing it for us for the last 15 overs,’ said Tamim. ‘Netherlands play the fast bowlers well. If they could socre around 15 runs in that over it would have been very difficult for us. So no praise is enough for him.’
Borren added that Mashrafee’s over was the turning point of the game.
‘At that stage we needed 11 an over and it was not unattainable. I thought Murtaza bowled beautifully throughout the whole evening. Four overs for 14- that’s pretty awesome if you are defending 154,’ said Borren.
-With New Age input
