When Bangladesh were struggling with the bat in the fourth innings, a television camera zoomed on a cat roaming on the roof of a gallery. No sooner it was shown on the giant screen it made the fans sitting in the stadium laughing in a loud voice. It could not be known if Mushfiqur Rahim also had noticed it or not. But one can easily guess what was going inside his mind during the time as Bangladesh were battling to avoid another near miss, something which became the trademark for the Tigers in 2014.
Finally they could overcome the jinx to post a three-wicket win in the first Test against Zimbabwe, their first of the year against a top opposition, which gave Mushfiq more relief than joy.
The celebration was therefore muted unlike the previous other occasions despite it was only their fifth Test win in 86 matches and first at home soil since they beat the same opposition in 2005.
‘I think this Test match win is a big deal because for a team like us, we don’t get too many wins,’ Mushfiq said after the match. ‘We lost a number of matches this year despite going so close. So, we are happy that we managed to hold the nerve in this match right till the end.’
Mushfiq also took their jittery run towards 101-run target as blessings in disguise.
‘We overcame [the nervousness] which was a plus point,’ said Mushfiq, who was 23 not out. ’We wanted to win and overcome and that has happened. Yes, the way we won this match, we didn’t expect that. There are a number of areas where if our batsmen would have improved it could have been an easier win.
05‘But at the end a win is a win and we are confident. Had we won this game easily then there would have been a number of areas regarding which we would have forgotten about.
‘So, at least now we know that we have a number of areas to work on. We need to work on them,’ he said.
Mushfiq received some invaluable support from tail-enders Shahadat Hossain and Taijul Islam to script the win as the duo added 11 and unbeaten 15 runs respectively after Bangladesh were slumped to 62-6.
Being the last recognised batsman Mushfiq stayed till the end but it was not a typical batting of batsman guiding the tail-enders.
Shahadat and Taijul were never shy of taking the strike protecting their skipper who was Zimbabwe’s lone headache after Elton Chigumbura-led medium pacers rocked Bangladesh’s top-order.
‘It could have been the other way around if I wanted to keep the strike all the time,’ he said. ‘I was the last recognised batsman and it wasn’t easy to charge or get quick runs in this wicket.
‘In fact this is what they wanted from me. They wanted me to charge and lead me to lose my wicket.
‘So when Rajib [Shahadat] came to me and asked me to stay on one side of the wicket and that they would stay with me till the end. So, I got the confidence. There weren’t a lot of runs to get.
‘Had I been out, we would have been under more pressure. I would have probably charged if the we lost our eighth wicket,’ said Mushfiq.
-With New Age input
