Four years ago Bangladesh experienced a heartbreaking defeat
against Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup. In a low scoring affair,
Bangladesh put a strong Pakistan side under enormous pressure to script history
in front of a vociferous crowd who was supporting Bangladesh. In the end,
Pakistan held their nerves to clinch a victory by two runs and still today, the
memories of that match hurt.
Bangladesh cricket has progressed since then. In the last
one and half years, their performance has been eye-catching, but still, when it
comes to handling the pressure against the top sides, they tend to collapse and
at times, lose a match despite being in a commendable position.
On a warm evening at Mirpur, Bangladesh’s target was 310 in
50 overs. Earlier, Ben Stokes and Ben Duckett’s inspiring fourth wicket
partnership and later on a late surge from Jos Buttler helped England to post
309 for 8 in 50 overs. The track at Mirpur was a sporting one. It was
supportive both for the batsmen and bowlers. All a batting team needs to do is,
keep wickets in hand, stitch productive partnerships and concentrate more on
strike rotation so that the pressure of the run rate doesn’t pose a threat.
A decent
start for the home team
Bangladesh’s
start was steady, but some smart bowling and outstanding fielding from England
put Bangladesh under pressure and the
match seemed to have slipped out of their hand at 153 fo r 4. Bangladesh regrouped
immediately and at one point, they needed just 37 runs from eight overs with
six wickets in hand. Imrul Kayes and Shakib Al Hasan stitched an outstanding
partnership to give the Englishmen the scare and, it seemed, the visitors might
end up as the losing side in the first ODI.
Shakib
Al Hasan was dismissed in the third ball of 42nd over and with players like
Mosaddek Hossain, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mosharraf Hossain waiting at the
dressing room, it was quite impossible to think about a Bangladesh defeat. But
to the astonishment of all, the Tigers ended up on the losing side as they lost
their last six wickets for just 17 runs.
Whenever
a beautifully poised partnership is broken while chasing totals, there is
always a risk of a collapse and it is when the importance of handling the
pressure becomes more important. The captain of the opposition unleashes
various tricks to unsettle the new batsman while the bowlers and fielders
automatically rediscover their lost vim and give their best shot to put the batting
team under pressure.
Jake
Ball varied his pace and length while Adil Rashid utilised the bounce of the
Mirpur track at its very best to pile pressure on the Bangladeshi lower order.
Bangladesh just needed to keep their cool and deal in singles and twos to
arrest a collapse, but all they did was a poor exhibition of temperament.
This
is not the first time Bangladesh have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,
but on many occasions, Bangladesh’s temperament was tested extremely by the big
teams of world cricket where they ended up the ghost in a tragic fashion.
How could
Bangladesh lose the match against England?
The
answer is not a complex one.
Bangladesh
simply failed to handle the pressure. It was not that they were in the soup,
but the situation was well under their control, but still they lost as because
they lacked the composure to deal such a suitable situation.
Rudi
Webster in the book “Think Like a Champion” said, “You create most of your
pressure by the way you evaluate the situations you face and assess your
ability to handle them. In pressure situations, you tend to magnify the
difficulties while underestimating your abilities to cope with them. It is that
distortion of assessment that creates the pressure. The larger the distortion
the greater is the pressure. Some pressure is caused by the actual game but
most of it is created by your perception of the game and what you think might
happen in it”.
Perhaps,
the dismissal of Shakib sowed the seeds of self-doubt and fear among the lower order
batsmen and left them thinking, England might make a comeback. And it seems,
such a thought killed the focus and hampered the composure of the team. Their
lack of composure was evident and when you lack composure, from nowhere, a ugly
collapse chips in to script tragedies.
According
to Rudi, “In sport, pressure is also caused by the importance of the moment,
the significance of the match, the stage of the match, a make-or-break point or
the closeness of the contest. If the situation is not important or if you don’t
care about the result or what happens to you, you won’t feel much pressure.”
Your
action is controlled by your mind and when you over think about the negative
outcomes, catastrophic outcomes are a sure to come.
England
handled the pressure better than Bangladesh as they believed they could win and
thus, were worthy the winners.
Note:
This
article has been published at Sportskeeda on 08/10/2016 Bangladesh failed to handle the pressure against England in the first ODI
Thank
You
Faisal
Caesar
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