leg spinners. Sahadat could have threatened Pak frontline with fire and swinging brimstone. Unfortunately our leg spinner Zubair could not turn up for he was not fit. Had tigers bowled with full strength team Pakistan could hardly score 300. In the absence of Shahadat Shaheed started bowling operation with part-time bowlers Somo failing to wreck havoc. They failed to grab quick five wickets in a seemingly merciless pitch favouring seamers. There were some bounce and seam movement from the very beginning. Azhar was out, but he was lucky for the wicket taking delivery of Saheed was declared no ball much later at the moment when Azhar was returning to the pavilion. As camera showed Saheed was just on the line not overstepping. Yet he fell victim of umpire’s wrong decision. Was it intentional like world cup 2015 against India! Azhar had been fortunate to survive till stumps on the first day, having given three clear chances. So also Younus Khan. In fact, umpire added to Azhar double and Younus ton-forcing tigers into corner. ICC umpires were cruel and hostile to tigers while favouring Pakistan. Their bating gains were led by Azhar Ali who moved to a maiden double ton, and Asad Shafiq, who struck a sprightly 107 after arriving at the crease in the second over of the day. The pair struck 207 runs. Only one spaceman Saheed was not expected to stand toil and moil of the day devoid of supporting bowler. He was overused. Bangladesh batted well considering wicket conditions cloudy with heavy atmosphere. The Sher-e-Bangla track appeared a great challenge for batsman while the Bangladesh bowlers toiled on it for much of the day. But Junaid, moving the ball both ways at pace, had the batsmen poking. He slipped three away swingers to Tamim first up, before nailing the in-form batsman in front of the stumps with one that curved in. Tamim was struck above the knee roll, and perhaps thought the ball to be sliding down, but his review was unsuccessful as projections. Later on it was dictated that Tamim was not out with the ball just moving little over the stump. Tamim’s very early dismissal caused a great setback. Another batsman was also victim of umpire’s call. Undeterred, Imrul cracked four fours in Junaid’s next over, before the bowler gathered himself. Mominul Haque was untroubled by the other seamer Imran Khan, but faced ten scoreless Junaid deliveries before presenting a faint under-edge to the wicketkeeper on 13. That ball and the one immediately before it had stayed unusually low, adding weight to suspicion that the pitch was becoming more difficult to bat on. Junaid had drawn false strokes from Imrul as well, but the batsman continued to play freely until Yasir removed him in his first over. Seducing Imrul into a drive, Yasir got the ball to dip and grip dramatically, to clatter into the stumps off the batsman’s pads. He sucked Shakib into a cut next ball, but Younis could not hold the sharp chance to his right. Yasir would get a second scalp regardless. In the last over of the day, he showed Mushfiqur a huge leg break, ripping away from off stump, before pitching a googly in the same area next ball. Having failed to read the ball, Mushfiqur played a cut, but had his stumps splayed. Some may doubt that with body language of tigers lacking in spirit and enthusiasm previously they demonstrated in five matches it seems that team Bangladesh conceded the last match to Pakistan perhaps with hidden instruction from team management. Why Musfique decided to bowl first with only two spacer? Tigers caught napping losing temperament punished by Pak bowlers and batsman. May be there was a deal behind the scene. Even a layman could know all that passed behind the screen. Pakistan apprehended that with no victory it would have to face the music, as crazy Pak fans were extremely agitated burning edifice of Pak players. There were lots of comics and satires going on following Pak dismal performance. Pak cricket management received threats and liquidation from the extremely agitated Pakistanis. Only one victory would be a face saving one. To all intents Pakistan was favoured by tremendous luck, bad umpiring and perhaps benign team management. Some commented that tigers even team management were not serious about victory or even a draw. Another doubt is the creation of space-friendly wicket. I fail to understand what the decision makers had in their mind and thought. At that time PCB chief visited Bangladesh to watch the last test. Is it a flurry of cricket diplomacy?Team selection was wrong. Tigers could do better with its winning combination in last four matches. Inclusion of some players in test invited serious criticism. The management would have tried Mustafizur Rahman who was in good form. He could bowl well all with his seam movement. One thing that I want to point out is the attitude of Pakistani fans. A critic commented: “PAK fans are always jealous when Tigers get any success. In the whole tour (ODI, T20s, Test) this is for the 1st time Paki’s are dominating and may be winning the game. But I think they have forgotten Bangla Wash in ODI, loose in T20 and even loose in the practise match against Tigers A team. Pak team (specially in ODI & T20s) is presently lacking experience but no doubt some of them will rule World Cricket in future. However, Test cricket is all about patience, which is lacking in our Tigers. Except that in ODI & T20 BD is a threat to all. Performance in World Cup in different condition is a clear evidence of that. Best of luck Tigers. Some comments (Face book status) deserve mention: How is it, that Pakistani spinners can extract so much juice from the track, whereas the Bangladeshi bowlers can get barely any? This is their home track and still they look barely at home. Sakib is going through one of the worst bowling patches ever in his career. But at least he is scoring runs. One wonders what Shuvogoto is there for? A very ordinary bowler, a even more ordinary batsman and yet he is selected twice to go and fail. Do you even know how points table work? Seems like you don’t. So here is an explanation in layman’s terms: you win games and get points. the more games you win, the more points you get. BD wins 3 matches and England won 2. BD had 6 1 points (1 from the washout), England had 4 points. If BD lost to Australia, they would still be at 6 points, England at 4. in what train of logical reasoning did BD get in to QF with help from 4ain gods? We played the most successful bowlers in the WC in NZ and scored over 250 against NZ, which no other team was able to do, including the mighty Aussies. Can we finally say that Bangladesh and their fans are back to earth? Also saw few insane comments from their fans that they want to badly thrash teams like India, SA and then Australia. Please wake up. You can beat them in ODI if luck permits but not in Test Matches. After all, your team missed to get humiliated badly in the WC. You should be thanking full to the rain gods to get into the QF. Cannot imagine your mediocre batsmen facing Starc, Johnson and Hazelwood in AUS pitches. You can support to a team but there is a limit for imagination!What a knock by Sakib, a true all rounder , number 1 indeed. Legend. Pls remove Musfiq from captaincy, he is very negative and biased person. To Musfiq, Pls don’t ruin bowler Sakib. To selectors, do you guys lost your mind, picking Sahadat, hom, Shahid?? when you have far better option availableTo all Bd haters, here is your moment to criticize Bd 🙂 To all pak fans, enjoy your time against 10 men BD team When a Pak fan talks about Pak’s issues in ODIS (selection/experience/new captain/comeback players) it’s taken as excuse by BD fans. But have a look at comments on day3 – 1st test. Then in this test: plan, selection, strategy, captain, even tests are not real cricket & BCB not focusing on tests? Funny thing is that mostly these big comments are coming from same guys who complain about excuses. None of Pak fan said that as we are doing well in tests, our ODI loss has vanished. Whereas, if you see comments before tests by some BD fans, then after 1 good partnership in 1st test ; mini AUS, claiming to be world beaters. The point is that when fans talk about own team’s issues, that don’t mean that they are taking away from other team. As a fan, they will always talk more about own team. can not just say “other played better.” BD have lost more than any one else, did fans always said 1 line? Can comment on own team without disrespecting others both sides. its just a game not war. n (Dr Md Shairul Mashreque is Professor of Public Administration of Chittagong University)
