The world cup has thus far seen precious few cliffhangers and has instead been dominated by lopsided matches, which do nothing more than to add fuel to the debate over this format of the game. However tonight in Dhaka, the world cup got the spark it so badly needed. Bangladesh took on Ireland at a jam packed Mirpur stadium. The game may have seemed insignificant on paper, but in reality both teams chances of a quarter final place hinged firmly on the outcome of this match.
Shakib al Hasan won the toss and decided that his team would bat, I personally felt at the time that this wasn’t the wisest of decision. History shows that teams batting second prosper at Mirpur but perhaps Shakib was still bearing some mental scars from the bashing the Indians inflicted on the Bengalis on Day 1 of the tournament. Nonetheless Bangladeshi talisman Tamim Iqbal did his best to dispel all doubts by smashing the Irish opening bowlers to all parts, playing glorious cover drives, mixed in with playing the ball beautifully off his legs. All in all Bangladesh got off to the most rousing of starts in front of a passionate crowd that lifted them to 50 odd of just 5 overs!
The Irish then reverted very quickly to taking pace off the ball, combined with some lazy antics from the Bengalis, a brilliant start from them was thrown right out the window and Ireland were back in it. Kayes was stumped off a wide ball, Siddique was run out soon after and Tamim himself flayed outside his off stump once too often and was caught easily at point. From a position of immense strength, the tigers suddenly found themselves in trouble at 68-3 and the Sher e Bangla stadium fell into a rather eerie silence.
A mini recovery was led by Rahim amd Rakibul, but quite unbelievably Bangladesh managed to find new and innovative ways of giving their wickets away. One in particular being an attempt to sweep balls from outside the offstump against the spin of George Dockrell. This resulted in no less than three wickets. All in all this meant that Bangladesh were bundled out for just 205 and were staring a loss, that would deflate their hopes of progression right in the face at the halfway mark. The Irish were rightly pleased with their bowling effort but my word….we had no idea of the drama we had in store!
Although Ireland got off to a decent enough start, the Bengalis opened the bowling with spin and by the third over spin was already in operation from both ends. On a Dhaka pitch that was rather slow and low, both openers eventually perished and at 36-2 new life was breathed not only into the Bengali team, but perhaps more importantly also the crowd. The stadium which had fallen silent, was roaring passionately once again. With the crowd and perhaps the nation now believing, that was a massive hurdle crossed for Bangladesh…perhaps this is where the battle was in fact won.
Serious danger though lay ahead, the Irish who had played superbly well thus far were certainly in no mood to let this game just slip from their grasp. Former England opener Ed Joyce and Irish batting mainstay Niall o Brien took their place at the crease. They started to pick off the Bangladeshi bowling with relative ease, inter-spersed with the odd crushing boundary. However just as Bangla spirits were starting to flag a little again, Ashraful foxed Joyce into a false shot and then ripped one through the defences of white, all this before the sensational and perhaps match turning moment occurred, when Tamim Iqbal charging in off the dived full length to catch danger man O brien literally millimeters off the ground! Before they knew what hit them Ireland were 110-5 and Bangladesh were swarming all over them.
The drama in this match was far from over though, and the Irish displayed their grit and tenacity very well with Kevin o Brien getting his rather plucky power hitting out and Andre Botha down the other end putting up stubborn resistance. Every boundary scored by the Irish was met by pin-drop silence, and with these two at the wicket the game was slipping away very fast from Bangladesh. There were a lot of depressed faces in the crowd as an early exit from CWC 2011 loomed large for the Bengalis.
The match would see one final and defining twist though as Shafiul Islam who had been wayward till now, returned and bowled an accurate spell of pumped up pace, bowling the remainder of the Irish batting lineup to send the partisan home crowd in raptures of joy. Bangladesh won in the end by 27 runs and the party in Dhaka must have lasted well into the early hours of the morning!
Osiris’s Views
In my view, more than anything else this game was important for the way the Bangladesh team finally let their inner passion and spirit loose today. Uptil now the Bengalis had been rather subdued, being very formal in their approach to the World Cup…quite frankly it didn’t suit them. It started with Tamim’s sensational batting and carried on when every the Bengalis took was celebrated with vigour unseen before in CWC 2011! In fact we had quite an intriguing variety ranging from synchronized celebrations, through to shadow boxing and perhaps best of all…the inspiring roar let out by Tamim Iqbal, his arms aloft as he turned to face the rapturous Bengali crowd after having taken a superb catch.
I personally feel that a Bengali victory was crucial to the well-being of the tournament, out of the three host countries, world cup fever has gripped Bangladesh more than any of the others. Days leading upto a match in Dhaka are just one massive street party, with hundreds of thousands of fans thronged out on the streets, creating an atmosphere that puts football world cups to shame. A defeat in this match would have virtually ended Bangladesh’s hopes of progression into the quarter finals and would have thus burst and deflated most of the vibe and atmosphere.
Having said that, I reckon we also do need a reality check here. This was only a game against Ireland and that too on a pitch that severely suited Bangladesh’s army of spin bowling. Even then they only managed to narrowly eke out a win after what was a disastrous effort with the bat overall. Mind you, the Irish deserve a lot of credit for this, they bowled within their limitations, took pace off the ball and fielded generally well to stifle the Bengali flair. They are by a country mile the best of the associate nations. Nonetheless, the other teams that the Bengalis are going to face in their group are unlikely to be so charitable in their batting effort. Keep in mind that in order to progress to the quarter finals the Bengalis now have to defeat Holland and at least one test playing nation in their group. Bangladesh might be ecstatic at the moment, but in order to achieve their goal they will most certainly have to up their game. This should make for intriguing viewing that’s for sure.
The Irish shouldn’t be dis-heartened by this defeat, and judging from the sporting smiles on their faces after the game, they weren’t. Ireland might have had quarter final ambitions, but those were unlikely in all honesty. Ireland did show a lot of fight and a lot of strength, they do the associate nations proud and I would in fact tip them to overturn one of the test playing nations in this campaign. Their band of military medium pacers well suited to sub-continent conditions, and the classy left hand spin and guile of youngster George Dockrell has added a lot to their team. They may have narrowly lost out today but they can take a lot of positives out of this match.
My final mention today has to go to Isis, I think it now falls upon me to confirm that in my view Isis has mystical powers of some sort! Right from predicting who the next batsman to be dismissed would be, right through to predicting that Shafiul would bowl out the last Irish batsman, literally one ball before he did just that! This streak of uncannily impressive predictions shows no sign of ending and if anyone out there is considering having a little bet during CWC2011, it might well be worth your while to consult Isis first!
So that’s all from me then, Isis is in fact covering the big game between Sri Lanka and Pakistan so watch out for that report, it promises to be a good one!
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