Nazmul Hossain Shanto's special knock at Cox's Bazar

Scotland’s new ball bowlers, Ryan Gifford Brown and Mohammad Ghaffar, were disciplined and utilized the early morning moisture well to stranglehold the young Bangladeshi batsmen.

Pinak Ghosh was undone by a fuller length delivery while Joyraz Sheik, who started to get out of the shell, was dismissed by gifting a catch to the fielder at point. Great start for Scotland, but a gloomy start for the host as they were reeling at 17 for 2.

The 17-year-old Nazmul Hossain Shanto walked out to bat when many of the fans from Bangladesh were preparing to bash the local media for not telecasting this match. They were still unaware about Bangladesh’s shaky start. The Bangladeshi cricket fans harshly criticised the people involved over this live-telecast matter in the social media and when they calmed down, they discovered that one of the younger Tigers had gone on to script a special hundred. The fans were sad as they missed watching such a brilliant knock. Their anger kept on escalating, but it ebbed away with a twinkle of an eye when the Tigers won comprehensively to advance into the next round.

Such a critical situation is nothing new for Shanto. Last year, in the fifth Youth one-day international (ODI) against Sri Lanka, the scenario was similar where he scored 92 runs to lift Bangladesh from a hapless 86 for 3, while at Pietermeritzburg against the South African U-19 side last year, he forged a 124-run stand with Saif Hassan in the fourth Youth ODI to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

The presence of Saif at the crease might have triggered the memories of Pietermeritzburg in Shanto’s brain, but past is past and what matters most is one’s performance in the present.

Past glories can be a source of inspiration, but not a guarantee to success. Every day is a new day and every innings is a new one. Shanto is well aware of this fact as he is a mature kid who has a head above his shoulders.

The moisture on the track of Cox’s Bazar had still not vanished. It was still aiding the medium pacers a lot. Neil Flack, the Scottish skipper, introduced their right-arm medium-fast bowler Finlay McCreath in the ninth over.

McCreath’s first ball was a yorker-length ball on the off stump which was defended confidently by Shanto and conveyed the message that he had come out to bat for a purpose. He got off the mark on the second ball.

In the twelfth over, McCreath pitched one short outside off. Such deliveries are easy to lure the batsmen to poke or have a go at it, but Shanto left it alone safely indicating that he might be just a 17-year old boy, but he is not an easy customer to fall into any such traps, he’s well aware of where his offstump stands and bears a sound knowledge about the game.

Shanto kept on occupying the crease as much as possible, as he knew, if he stayed at the wicket, the runs would come and batting would become easier as by then, he would have adapted well to the conditions.

Leg spinner, Haris Aslam tossed up a beautiful delivery on the last ball of the thirteenth over and Shanto got into the position quickly and adjusted his foot movement with a flash to script a well-timed shot through the extra-cover for four against the spin. Over number 13 saw nine runs and for a brief period Shanto curbed his natural attacking instincts and for six overs he and Saif weathered the testing overs from Aslam and Mitchell Rao smartly – it was all about rotating the strike rather than dealing with boundaries.

Off the fourth ball of twentieth over, Shanto cracked an eye-catching inside-out stroke against Rao over midwicket. Six overs later, a powerful shot down the ground and a flick down to fine leg boosted Shanto’s confidence even more and four overs later, Aslam was again drilled through the extra-cover for another boundary. A single off Rao brought Shanto’s fifty and his lively knock almost overshadowed Saif’s dour presence, which provided the perfect foil to Shanto’s fluency.

Saif’s departure after forging a 101-run partnership, let the entrance of Bangladesh skipper Mehedi Hasan Miraz. For the next one hour or so, it was a scintillating batting display. Miraz clobbered an Azeem Dar fuller-length over mid-on for four and was in no mood to hang around but boost the Bangladesh score. During Miraz’s stay at the wicket, Shanto played the role of a sheet-anchor as there was no need for both the guns to blaze.

For the next one hour, Cox’s Bazar Sheik Kamal Cricket Stadium witnessed yet another 100-run partnership which was an amalgamation of counterattack and perfect composure. Miraz went berserk while Shanto motored the innings with maturity so that the innings did not lose its momentum suddenly. Miraz’s attacking stroke-play almost let everyone forget that Shanto was just four runs away from scoring a very special hundred.

Ghaffar had dismissed Miraz in the second ball of the 48th over, but neither the fall of Miraz nor Ghaffar’s next ball which demanded respect, unfazed Shanto. He simply whacked it over midwicket for four to notch-up one of the finest hundreds of this ICC U-19 World Cup. Shanto smothered Ghaffar in the final over to fetch thirteen runs. He remained not out on 113 and his knock injected confidence among the Bangladeshi bowlers who steamrolled Scotland in an empathic fashion.

Shanto’s temperament is rock solid and his ability to stabilize an innings under pressure and the habit of playing a long-innings can be a blessing for the Bangladesh senior team in the upcoming days.

Naturally, Shanto is known for his attacking batting display, but one tends to forget that, while grafting an innings, he doesn’t depend on boundaries, but maneuvering the strike is the hallmark of his batting. If scoring boundaries are not possible, he keeps the scoreboard and fielders busy by picking up singles and twos. This also indicates his ability to pick the gaps smartly.

Such attributes are a rarity among the modern day youngsters who love boundary-based batting rather than strike-rotation.

Shanto’s sense and sensibility, his ability to soak-up the pressure and his hunger for runs are unique. So far, Shanto’s back to back brilliant knocks have been superlative and the knock against Scotland is the talk of the town at the moment.

Note: This article has been published in Cricwizz on 1/02/2016 Nazmul Hossain Shanto's special knock at Cox's Bazar

Thank You

Faisal Caesar