The Tigers made Bangladesh forget about cold wave

"Bangladesh started off with a bang this year. They can get satisfied with this performance but not relax as because, they still need to work harder on some of their shortcomings in upcoming matches, especially against Sri Lanka". 

Bangladesh’s weather is pretty chilling at the moment. The biting cold wave from a week ago has disrupted the normality of people of Bangladesh. At Nilphamari the temperature was 3-degree C while in Dhaka the temperature is fluctuating on a regular, but it’s not increasing beyond 10-degree C.  The people of this busy and chaotic capital city are cold-bitten and their life has become stagnant.

They required something to regain their energy and no event can be as big as a cricket carnival in Bangladesh to trigger heat production in the hypothalamus of cricket-loving passionate people of Dhaka and whole Bangladesh.  The cold wave is still persisting in the country but the passionate fans are not even caring about the intensity of winter as they are already energized by the sight of their favourite stars dancing and rejoicing on the green canvas of Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

In 2018, the journey of Bangladesh cricket team started off with a Tri-series which includes Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and then, they would compete against the Lankans in a Test series after the end of this triangular tournament. The last few months of 2017 witnessed moments of chaos in Bangladesh cricket’s fraternity. It was very sad to lose one of the best coaches in world cricket. Then, a change in Test captaincy instilled a sense of unacceptability and anger in the minds of many and to move on without the services of a head coach, surely, was not expected by many.

But, Bangladesh, over the years, have developed the courage and confidence to tackle any situations and when a smart and intelligent Board President like Nazmul Hassan is around, one can still think of stability and harmony. Yes, Mr. Nazmul Hassan is not a popular figure among fans and local media as because, he has been portrayed as such by a section of media personalities, which still leaves me baffled, thinking, how could some people be so blind!

Anyhow, that’s a different issue and there is no need to discuss that with enough depth here.

Bangladesh start the year with a bang, the cold wave get’s beaten

The crowd did beat the cold wave and gathered in Mirpur’s National Cricket Stadium to witness their team. The wind flowing from the North was bone-chilling and made the body to shake but when you watch the best in the business, Shakib Al Hasan to strike gold in the very first over, automatically, the catecholamines secreted from Suprarenal glands due to the effect of sympathetic nervous system, initiates heat production in the hypothalamus and then, you don’t even care about the might of cold wave or north wind.  

    

Gradually, the cold wave gives up hope of stagnating life, when the fans witnessed Mustafizur Rahman dishing out his cutters to leave the Zimbabwean batters clueless. It was the old Fizz for which many of the passionate fans were waiting eagerly to enjoy for a long, long time.  Brendan Taylor and Sikandar Raza did decipher Fizz’s cutters, but for the rest, it remained a mystery and on a slow deck, those posed a big threat to the Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe tried to stitch partnerships, but they were not able to ensure stability. Rubel Hossain ended the formalities by disturbing the timber to restrict Zimbabwe below 200 runs and chasing such a total was nothing but a cakewalk for the experienced batting lineup of Bangladesh.

A good start for the Tigers and they made Bangladesh to forget about cold wave.

But.....

It was out and out a professional performance by the home team, ‘but’ in my opinion, it was more about the mediocrity of Zimbabwean side than Bangladesh’s display. They lacked the cutting edge, technical efficiency and ideal temperament to weather the storm and thus, threw away wickets. Batsmen like Taylor and Raza did show the importance of getting on the pitch of the delivery with an initial backward movement against Fizz and Bangladesh spinners, but they were undone by the lack of temperament and perhaps, their shortage of matches each year, played a role in cropping up such a mediocre temperament.  

Bangladesh can be satisfied with a win, but they cannot relax as their big test would be against Chandika Hathurusingha’s Sri Lanka. After watching Bangladesh’s batting yesterday, I felt, they still were not comfortable enough to go behind the line of the ball on a track which gave evidence of uneven bounce. Then, Bangladesh’s fielding was also sloppy – Malcolm Waller was dropped twice, even though he repeated the mistake to script his own downfall against Sunzamul Islam.  Meanwhile, Anamul Haque’s rush of blood can also prove handy in upcoming matches. You don’t hole out to midwicket so early in a 50-over match.

Zimbabwe failed to utilise such things, but Sri Lanka would not be as mediocre as Zimbabwe.  

Note: This article has been published at Cricketsoccer on 16/01/2018 The Tigers made Bangladesh forget about cold wave

Thank You

Faisal Caesar