Tigers no longer whipping boys

The growing number of match winners in recent times has helped Bangladesh cricketers to shrug off their tag of international whipping boys, a senior cricketer said on Tuesday.
Tigers earned the tag of whipping boys when they had been without a win for almost five years after defeating Pakistan in the World Cup in 1999.
During the period, they played 47 matches and lost all but two games which produced no result.
Their defeats included 23 matches in a row, which was a world record. Bangladesh also had the previous world record of 22 most consecutive defeats spanning from 1986 to 1999.
But the Tigers changed their fate recently and have now 59 wins to their credit. All but three of their wins came in the past six years after they had ended world record losing streak with an eight-run win against Zimbabwe at Harare in 2004.
They are now leading the five-match series against three-time World Cup semi-finalists New Zealand 2-0 and that too without three of their proven performers — Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful.
‘It has been possible because we have a number of match winners now,’ wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim said. ‘In the past, we could win a game if [Mohammad] Ashraful Bhai or Mashrafee [bin Murtaza] Bhai performed. But now Sakib [al Hasan], Ryad [Mahmudullah], Shuvo [Sohrawardi] and Tamim can also win matches for us,’ he said.
‘We were also much inconsistent in the past. But things have changed. No we can think about the next game after a win. We just need to be accustomed to such situations,’ he said.
Mushfique said there was no room for them to be complacent despite two consecutive wins against the Kiwis. Bangladesh have dominated from the start to the end in the second one-day international, which they won by seven wickets, but Mushfique said they had made some mistakes which could be avoided.
‘It is not that we played a very good cricket in the past two matches. We still have enough room for improvement. We did not bowl well in the powerplay and were unable to have them all out in the first game. If we can improve in such areas, obviously we can win the series,’ he said.
Former vice-captain Mushfique also expected a better wicket in the fourth one-dayer on Thursday.
‘We played two games on a turning track and our spinners have got a lot of assistance from them. We hope it will improve in the next match,’ the wicketkeeper-batsman said.
 
 

Courtesy of NewAge