It was an exciting day of Test cricket at Mirpur on day 1.
13 wickets fell on the day and had rain not interfered, the duration of
excitement would have been more as the English top order was found wanting
again. Shakib Al Hasan struck gold first and then, it was the young sensation,
Mehedi Hasan, who set jitters in the English batting line-up yet again.
Alastair Cook became his victim while the struggling Gary
Ballance was dismissed cheaply again, leaving a big question mark over his
selection.
But Bangladesh’s strike at the fag end of the day was not
the most thrilling part, in fact, it was the collapse of the home team’s
batting order which made the day an eventful one.
Imrul Kayes left the scene early, but Tamim Iqbal’s
imperious form and Mominul Haque’s calm and cool presence gave Alastair Cook a
scare, as they were well poised to build a strong platform.
When England met Bangladesh last time at Mirpur six years
ago, they experienced a birthday bash from Tamim and on day 1, they were
treated with another exhibition of caution-mixed-with-aggression type of
delicacy from the Bangladeshi southpaw. At the other end, Mominul provided the
ideal foil to Tamim’s controlled aggression as they scripted a 170-run
partnership for the second wicket in 41 overs.
Cook’s spinners let him down in the first session and he
decided to rely on his strength – the pace bowlers – in the second session. The
ball started to lose its shine and overcast conditions made him introduce a
spin-and-pace bowling combination in search for a breakthrough.
Why did the Bangladeshi batting collapse in such bizarre
fashion?
Of course, there were some obvious reasons behind this.
Firstly, in Test cricket, there happens to be a passage of
play, which proves testing for the batsmen and England unleashed such a period
from over 45 to 56.
When Adil Rashid’s sloppy bowling was releasing the pressure,
Cook thought he had enough and threw the ball to his go-to-man Ben Stokes. The
English captain persisted with Ali and engaged Ben Stokes from the other end
and Stokes delivered his captain’s faith in him and was simply mesmerising from
one end.
He banged the ball short at pace, made it move away from
back of a length and brought it back into the batsmen which made run scoring a
daunting task and the overcast conditions aided him a lot as well. Be it Trent
Bridge or Mirpur, whenever the conditions are gloomy, the English pace bowlers
are always deadly.
To survive in such tough periods, resolve is the most
important thing and Bangladesh failed to exhibit it big time. In those eleven
overs, Bangladesh needed to stay at the wicket, but they attempted too many
shots and thus, succumbed. Moeen and Stokes plucked five wickets for 31 runs
during their brief spell and Bangladesh lost their way.
Secondly, the lack of technique of the Bangladeshi batsmen
while playing against reverse swing made them suffer a lot. It’s never an easy
task to handle the reverse swing, but there are ways to counter it. One is
composure and the other is an appropriate technique.
While playing the reverse swing, a batsman needs to pay
attention towards the shine of the ball, adjust his stance, footwork and back
lift. It’s always ideal to open the stance a bit, locate the shine, whether it
is directed towards midwicket or cover, delay the movement as late as possible,
lower the back lift and not shuffle too much across the crease.
Sadly, the Bangladeshi batters failed to apply such techniques
and were unsure about the destination of the ball after landing on the track
and the outcome was not chummy at all.
Thirdly, England were smart enough to set up the Bangladeshi
batsmen. As, for example, Mahmudullah was set up by Stokes intelligently.
The first ball of his 45th over was a beauty from a back of
a length and the second one was another good ball, but till the 51st over,
Stokes bowled almost 8-9 balls outside off from a length , apart from dishing
out some late swings to Mahmudullah. He hammered one for four and felt Stokes
could be neutralised by targeting the balls outside off.
In the 51st over, Stokes’ first three balls to Shakib were
good ones from back of a length and outside off with a hint of reverse swing.
In the fourth ball, Stokes, who gave Mahmudullah the false
sense of security that he will be easy to hit outside off, pitched one way
outside off at which Mahmudullah poked at and the slip fielder took the catch
to pile more pressure on the Bangladeshi batters.
The second session sapped away Bangladesh’s vim and even the
likes of Shakib Al Hasan failed to rise to the occasion as it was Chris Woakes
who carried on the good work of Stokes to dismiss Bangladesh’s last two hopes,
Shakib and Shuvgata Hom.
Lastly, Bangladesh play fewer Test matches against the big
teams and quality attacks. Had they played enough Test matches and faced such
high-quality pace bowling regularly, they might have developed the art of
resolve to survive the tough passages of play and polish their technique
against reverse swing.
Note: This
article has been published at Sportskeeda on 29/10/2016 Why Bangladesh collapsed on day 1 of the second Test against England
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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