Abdur Razzak registered his name in the record books for an unexpected feat by sharing the achievement of hitting the quickest fifty by a Bangladeshi in a one-day international alongside Mohammad Ashraful after his heroics in the second ODI against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo on Sunday. Coming in to bat at number nine with his side struggling at 185-7, Razzak blasted an explosive, unbeaten 22-ball 53 featuring five sixes and four boundaries to guide the Tigers to a respectable total of 252-9 against the hosts.
In the process, he also became the fifth Bangladeshi player to strike five sixes in an innings in their entire cricket history consisting of 267 ODIs since 1986.
Ashraful had struck 94 from 52 balls against England in Nottinghamshire on his way to becoming the quickest batsman to hit a fifty for the Tigers in 2005 which Razzak equaled on Sunday when he demonstrated his batting skills that was hardly exposed earlier.
Hitting sixes had always been a weak link for the Bangladeshi batsmen since their inception in international cricket and their shortcoming is proven as only five players could achieve the accomplishment of thumping five or more sixes in an innings among the 107 ODI cricketers till date.
The left-handed lower-order batsman, who debuted in the one-dayers seven years ago, have so far played 142 matches but could hardly come up with a dazzling batting performance before this match.
Razzak, the most successful ODI bowler for the Tigers with 201 wickets, smacked all over the Queens Sports Club field virtually transforming the momentum towards the tourists’ favour over their opponents at lunch.
However, his astonishing attainment did not come as a surprise to one of his mentors at BKSP where he groomed himself before joining the national team.
‘He (Razzak) was an opener when he joined,’ said Nazmul Abedin, a former BKSP cricket coach.
‘It was only when his bowling action was considered to be inappropriate that he became a spinner.’ said Nazmul.
‘But as he became more successful with the ball, he started to neglect his batting,’ he added.
Razzak had always been keen to hone his batting skills since he was aware of the importance of making some contribution as it had remained his only deficiency to be a regular Test member of the Tigers having featured in only nine Test matches so far.
The soft-spoken lad from Khulna is often seen undergoing batting practice whenever there is an opportunity and it all repaid him rich dividends in the second ODI against Zimbabwe.
The fact that he struck all the sixes taking his body in the line of the ball unlike the other tail-enders who tried to heave every delivery across the park by playing cross-batted shots also implied that he had begun to reserve some time for his batting.
‘If you had noticed, it was not only swing-and-miss. Rather, he tried to go after the bowlers with his head and toe perfectly balanced like a batsman,’ said Nazmul.
-With New Age input
