The bounce of the wicket at Hagley Oval was nice and true.
It was a typical limited-overs track which makes cricket worth watching
Downunder. Pitching the ball on back of a length by targeting the top of off
stump would test the skill and temperament of the batsmen, while the batters
were needed to get on top of the bounce by getting behind the line of the ball
and playing close to the body with soft hands.
Pitching the ball too short and playing the ball with hard
hands won’t fetch any productive results.
The New Zealand batsmen are well-equipped to exploit their
home conditions and went into business from the word go after winning the toss.
Bangladeshi bowlers did pick wickets and tried to dent the acceleration, but
inconsistency in maintaining the right length led to a game-changing
partnership between Tom Latham and Colin Munro which took the match away from
the visitors.
At 158 for 4 in the 29th over, it seemed, Bangladesh might
be able to keep the score below three hundred, but the next eighteen overs
witnessed some eye-popping power-hitting from Latham and Munro which would have
made Brendon McCullum a proud man. But, one cannot deny, how below -par the
Bangladeshi bowlers had been.
Latham and Munro were fed with a good amount of very short
balls and half-volleys regularly, which were plundered all along the ground in
the most ruthless fashion. Bad bowling deserves to be treated brutally and the
Kiwis never bothered to show any mercy towards the visitors.
Bangladesh required 342 runs to win from 50 overs and the
kind of display the visitors exhibited for the last two years, on this
wonderful track, the optimistic cricket fans didn’t lose hope. What Bangladesh
needed the most was a good start, big partnerships and not lose too many
wickets early.
Those who could not wake up at 4 am and follow the bowling
of Tigers, switched on the television set at 9:30 am and discovered Bangladesh
were in tatters at 48 for 3.
The menace were the short balls which the home team pacers
well-directed towards the head of Bangladeshi top-order batters by landing them
in the right area and pitching it rather full to extract enough movement from
the new ball. The Bangladeshi innings lost its momentum before it could get
into the groove and give the home team a fighting reply.
The short-balls proved to be a nemesis, but one man showed
how to deal them with authority and he was Shakib Al Hasan.
When Shakib emerged onto the scene, Tamim Iqbal was at the
crease pondering how quickly the Bangladesh batting is facing an ugly collapse.
The tearaway fast bowler Lockie Ferguson and Trent Boult were too hot to handle
while the medium-pacer Jimmy Neesham was making the scoring of runs tough with
a nagging line and incisive length.
Shakib remained unfazed by the pressure. He knew it was his
time to step up and boost the confidence of his team by remaining composed and
brave. If the challenge was a stifling one, he has the technique and
temperament to travel through this tough passage of play.
The sight of the best allrounder in the world surely would
have charged Ferguson up to bang the ball short and knock him out. But if a
batsman possesses the right technique against the short-balls, he won’t sweat.
Shakib handled the fury of Ferguson bravely.
The 29-year-old was fed with a barrage of bouncers, but his
stay at the wicket was not short-lived. His initial trigger movement was on the
back foot, which helped him to get behind the line of the ball quickly than his
other colleagues. His focus was not disturbed by the heat of the
bouncer-display and thus, picked the length quickly to fetch runs.
There was no real power behind that shot, but a superb
technique allowed the ball to travel the distance. Of course, Shakib never went
hard at the ball, but fetched runs with soft hands, playing it later and
getting on top of the bounce.
Technically, Shakib was very perfect and like him, Mushfiq
was also showing immense maturity while dealing the short-pitched stuff. An
injury dented Mushfiq’s stay at the crease. Otherwise, the Shakib-Mushfiq
partnership might have given New Zealand a scare.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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