Another dream, another nightmare

In the morning, while travelling by the bus to my hospital, I could feel the excitement and enthusiasm amongst our cricket lovers regarding the final day’s play at Mirpur. The people in the bus were highly confident about Bangladesh’s success against the West Indies and they were smelling a victory – a thing which is a rarity in our cricket.

From my mobile I checked the Facebook posts and the Facebook citizens of Bangladesh were oozing with confidence. They just didn’t wish for another Multan incident. All of them wished and prayed wholeheartedly so that our boys don’t bog down when it mattered most. But, reality is very cruel. Our boys again let us down and left us frustrated. In Multan we had lost to a man’s individual brilliance but at Mirpur we lost to ourselves.

Sohag Gazi rattled the Caribbean tail cheaply to claim the honours of being the most successful bowler for Bangladesh on Test debut and Bangladesh were set a target of 245 in their second innings with plenty of time in hand. The fifth day Mirpur track had uneven bounce but it was not as threatening to test the batsmen to the limits. Proper application and patience with a positive temperament was enough to achieve the glory. But instead, the Bangladeshi batsmen triggered the button of self destruction and gifted the West Indies a victory which should’ve been ours.

To chase a total in the fourth innings all a team need is to utilize the momentum gained from the first innings and play out each session without any adrenaline rush. But pathetically Bangladesh spoiled all the hard work simply through irresponsible batting. Tamim fell to a delivery which he could easily leave alone, Junaid went poking outside the off-stump, Nafees played a meaningless pull shot, Nasir was poor while judging the turn, while Gazi skied a shot when an effective partnership with Riad was shifting the momentum towards Bangladesh during a critical juncture of the match.

The end result was another frustrating defeat which again shattered the hopes of millions of cricket fans. It’s not the first time, but it’s happening again and again. With the match well in our grip we tend to let it slip away from our hands. Again and again we are simply failing to display the attitude of a winner. We still have not learned how to win, we still have not learned how to learn from mistakes.

When will we learn?

Can we take the positives earned from this Test match to Khulna for the second Test? Can we keep our confidence intact at Khulna? Do our cricketers feel defeated by this defeat? Or, they will just be happy thinking that this Test match has gone five days and many personal landmarks have been achieved?

As a Test playing nation Bangladesh doesn’t get enough chance to play Test cricket and for which whatever the opportunities come they must not be wasted but should be utilized apt and appropriately to demand respect from those harsh critics who always questions our abilities. But sadly, we blow away the opportunities on a regular basis.

The time has come to build enough character to achieve goals which are well within our reach. The time has come to feel defeated and understand the emotions of those fans who look forward to their favorite sons with hope. The Tigers are murdering our dreams again and again. This should not happen.  

Thank You

Faisal Caesar