Bangladesh duo’s huge stand sends New Zealand packing
It is a hung parliament, and a hung Champions Trophy. Seven of the eight countries can still qualify for the semi-finals at Cardiff on Wednesday and Edgbaston on Thursday.
New Zealand are the only country so far to have been eliminated, following their defeat by Bangladesh by five wickets. If Australia defeat England today, they will go through to the second of the semi-finals, otherwise it will be Bangladesh facing the winners of Group B.
Bangladesh won this game by constraining New Zealand in their last 10 overs to only 63 runs, then by staging a world-class fifthwicket stand after they had lost their first four wickets for only 33. Shakib al-hasan and Mahmudullah Riyad staged the highest ever stand for Bangladesh in one-day internationals for any wicket by adding 224 off 219 balls. Both had to score a hundred, and both did.
Shakib is the poster boy of Bangladesh cricket, his face on every other advertisement, and the manner in which he reached his seventh ODI century in a hail of drives against Trent Boult, no less, will not diminish his commercial value. There was something of the oldfashioned West Indian batsman about those shots, and even more so in the case of Mahmudullah, who has always had the ebullience and flair but only in his 30s has acquired some patience.
The problem for Bangladesh’s ecstatic supporters was that almost two hours remained after the finish before they could celebrate, with the arrival of sunset at 9.20, when the fast of Ramadan could be broken. They had to make do with drinking deep of the occasion and recalling the famous victory over Australia on this ground in 2005.
England will play their semi-final on a new pitch, right in the middle of the square, but batting at Cardiff overall – other than for Shakib and Mahmudullah – has been more difficult than at the other two venues as the ball does not come on. New Zealand hit the grand total of one six yesterday and even their captain Kane Williamson, canny Kane himself, the leading run-scorer in this Champions Trophy, played and missed half-a-dozen times in making his lowest score of the tournament, although he was run out in the end for 57.
And if there has been a captain of the tournament so far, it has to be, not Williamson, nor Eoin Morgan, although he can assume the title if he engineers an England victory over Australia, nor Sarfraz Ahmed though he has pumped life back into Pakistan, nor even the most illustrious Virat Kohli, but Bangladesh’s Mashrafe Mortaza. If surgeons could give Mortaza new knees, he would tear in and bowl at 95mph, such is his zeal. Now compelled to use little more than his right arm, he was very tidy against New Zealand, but inspired when it came to devising how to constrain them in those final 10 overs.
It was not the most exotic rabbit that Mortaza plucked out of his cap: Mosaddek Hossain is not a Giant Angora, just a little off-spinner who bowls darts. But Mosaddek did the job alright by taking three wickets in three overs, including one of the finest hitters in Corey Anderson, pinned lbw first ball by a non-turner, while he also had the charging Jimmy Neesham stumped. But that is the point: Mortaza has far fewer bowling resources than most countries, yet his enthusiasm has dragged Bangladesh up the rankings, made them qualify for this tournament ahead of West Indies, and taken them to the verge of the semi-finals.
New Zealand could claim to have the best pair of opening bowlers in this tournament: the only teams to lose as many as three wickets in the first 10 overs have been Australia and Bangladesh when facing New Zealand. Tim Southee and Boult were all over Bangladesh’s top order, as the new balls swung for once, but they had little back-up.
Immaturity – giving wickets away with poorly evaluated options – used to be the hallmark of Bangladesh batting. Shakib, with 114 off 115 balls, and Mahmudullah, with his third ODI hundred, were so mature in pacing their partnership, to which New Zealand’s bowlers contributed generously with wides. Bangladesh had defeated them in their last ODI encounter, but that was when New Zealand lacked their Indian Premier League stars. This was the real deal, the signal that Bangladesh can compete with any country in this format at home or abroad.