“Bangladesh need to utilise the confidence gained at
Hamilton and this Bangladesh unit is capable of delivering their best”
For a cricketer, it
is very important to have a vision and without a vision, his performance will
lack purpose and direction. A cricketer needs to believe in his vision as
because self-belief and values provide the energy and discipline to drive
towards the desired goal.
Self-belief is similar to the roots of a tree for a
cricketer. Without self-belief, a cricketer would fall down. Now, to
materialize the vision requires a perfect plan – how a cricketer organizes
himself and execute to make his vision a reality, is another important aspect
of achieving success at the highest level.
Hard work, courage and learning from your mistakes are the
most important ingredients, without which neither a vision nor a plan would
bore fruits. In cricket the value of a tough temperament is huge. I repeat, a
bold mind has helped to overcome technical insufficiencies on many occasions.
As for example in 1980, in the first Test against West
Indies at Lahore, Pakistan were struggling at 95 for 5. It was up to Pakistan’s
bowling all-rounder Imran Khan to sort things out. At that point of time, Imran
was a better bowler than batsman. But a decade of struggle has taught him how
to fight against the best and for him, mistakes have always been the best
teacher. Against the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Sylvester Clarke, Colin Croft
and Joel Garner; Imran went on to script his first Test hundred.
Clarke had troubled Imran a lot but his ability to get back
quickly on the back foot and courage to face the barrage of short-pitch bowling
helped him to salvage Pakistan’s pride. Imran worked hard on his batting
technique as a County cricketer and whenever he failed with the bat, he would
always spend enough time in the nets to improve his technique. He had a vision
and self-belief to be the best and thus executed his plans accordingly through
sheer hard work.
One could witness a fine exhibition of hard work and courage
at Hamilton on Day 4 as well. All was doom and gloom in the morning with Trent
Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner fresh to hunt for the prey; an early
capitulation of Bangladesh batsmen was expected. The overnight not out batsmen
of Bangladesh, Mahmudullah Riyad and Soumya Sarkar did show enough courage to
weather the storm at the fag end of Day 3, but whether they would be able to
carry the same on fourth day remained a moot question.
A fight was much needed from Bangladesh to boost the morale
of team. The responsibility was more on Mahmudullah to lead from the front as
the stand-in captain. He has always been the most underrated customer and
contributed heavily whenever the chips were down.
Mahmudullah delivered yet again!
In the first innings, he was dismissed while executing a
poor shot against the harmless bouncer of Wagner, but he would not commit the
same mistake in second. He was well enough focused and saw-off the good
deliveries in morning session. His plan was to spend as much time as possible
in the middle and not let the opposition take upper hand. He ducked
against the short-pitch deliveries keeping his wrist down, left the good ones
as much as possible and jumped to get on top of the bounce, but never played
any silly shots.
He said, “When we were batting at the first hour, we were
thinking of not giving our wicket away easily. We wanted to survive that period
yesterday. They bowled well in different phases. Wagner consistently tried
back-of-a-length bouncers. Southee and Bolt tried to find swing with the new
ball. I think maybe that is their main procedure. Maybe they try to get the
edge with the new ball before going to the short stuff with the older ball”.
The patience of spending time paid off. As soon as
Mahmudullah adapted to the situation, he flayed some jaw-dropping shots against
Wagner and Boult. It was a great exhibition of back foot stroke-play for which
Bangladesh are not renowned for. What more does a cricket romantic need when
someone like Mahmdullah creams Boult through the covers off the back foot and
hooks Wagner with authority for sixes.
Mahmudullah’s shot selection was much more calculative than
Soumya, but when he decided to smash, he did it with disdain.
Meanwhile, Soumya was all about counterattack. He was
provided with the perfect support from Riyad at the other end to flex his
muscles. Soumya’s timing was a treat for the eyes. And his back-and-across
movement against New Zealand pacers, who changed angles while pitching it short
– helped him to murder the attack mercilessly. Even if Soumya was not in full
control while playing Wagner’s bouncers, still he had the courage and
confidence to crush him out of the park.
He took just 94 balls to reach his ton – the joint quickest
by a Bangladesh batsman alongside Tamim Iqbal and his partnership of 235 runs
for fifth wicket with Mahmudullah is expected to prove instrumental in upcoming
Test matches.
Mahmudullah and Soumya had a clear vision and the plan to
execute that. They put a price tag on their wickets and did not want to
surrender easily. The tough temperament was evident throughout their knocks of
146 and 149.
“I think to succeed, you have to play tough cricket in Tests
because at times there will be good spells from both ends and it’s important to
understand these things. We took the easy option in the first innings and went
for shots and got out. A few of our batsmen fell to the same kind of shots. For
the second innings, I decided not to let things go easily. I wanted to suffer
and take blows on the body but still give myself a chance,” Mahmudullah said.
Mahmudullah and Soumya have sown the seed of confidence
among the boys, who found the going tough and even the Bangladesh captain
stated boldly, “Our batsmen have gained an idea regarding these things and
hopefully we can keep these things in mind for the second Test”.
Bangladesh need to utilise the confidence gained at Hamilton
and this Bangladesh unit is capable of delivering their best.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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