Mushfiq buries Bangalore blues
Mushfiqur Rahim steered a full and wide ball from Thisara Perera in the final over to the third man fence on Saturday. The former Bangladesh captain stood still, composed himself and dug out a yorker to level the scores. Rahim then clipped a full delivery to mid wicket. Once the run was completed, Rahim broke into a snake dance.
Bangladesh had secured the fourth-highest successful chase in T20 Internationals and the win not only helped Bangladesh snap their losing streak. Almost two years ago, Mushfiqur had failed to complete the job at hand.
BANGALORE HORRORS
In the World T20 clash against India in March 2016, Bangladesh needed 11 off the final over bowled by Hardik Pandya. Mushfiqur hit two boundaries to get the equation down to two off three balls with three wickets remaining. After he hit the second boundary, Rahim pumped his fist and jumped up in joy, coming close to Pandya.
However, in the quest to finish the game off in style, Rahim holed out to deep mid wicket. Mahmudullah fell trying to slog and was caught at deep mid wicket while Mustafizur Rahman could not out-run MS Dhoni to be run-out. Everybody criticised Mushfiqur’s pre-mature celebration after the loss.
COLOMBO:
TURBULENT TIMES Mushfiqur apologised to fans on social media. The World T20 loss seemed to have hit Bangladesh hard and in 2017/18, they had won only one out of 14 T20 matches. With each loss, the nightmare of Bangalore kept stabbing Mushfiqur.
REDEMPTION ACHIEVED Mushfiqur’s snake dance spoke of the relief that he was able to guide Bangladesh to the highest successful chase in Sri Lanka. The victory was set-up by some aggressive batting from Liton Das (43) and Tamim Iqbal (47) as Bangladesh threw the Nidahas Trophy open.
Speaking after match, Tamim said, “The amount of criticism Mushfiq copped that day (in Bangalore), I think he should be praised the same amount.”