Experience delivers eventually
Already named to play in an intra-squad four-day match, Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar received a surprise national call-up despite BCB’s early announcement to not name a replacement for Tamim Iqbal. Imrul then justified what appeared to be a decision taken in befuddled state of mind by the board and played a decisive knock for the country with a gallant never-say-die attitude to mark his comeback.
Starting off with a mini collapse, Bangladesh’s ever-dependable Mushfiqur Rahim came up at the crease and stitched a crucial 63-run stand Liton Das just to be broken by the latter’s careless shot-selection against Rashid Khan, whose wrist-spinning prominence has long instilled a fear in the minds of the Tigers. Unsurprisingly, Rashid’s arrival in the bowling attack resulted in chaos for the Men in Red & Green, with Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur falling victim to suicidal run-outs.
Following the disaster, Imrul and then Mahmudullah Riyad came in to offer some respite to the Bangladesh supporters. Imrul hit his first boundary off the very first delivery Rashid Khan bowled to him, sending a clear message.
The duo of Imrul and Mahmudullah started with a cautious approach, as they were already five wickets down for 87 runs, dealing in ones and twos and occasionally going for boundaries until the last nine overs of their innings.
Mahmudullah left the crease in the 47th over, trying to slam a half-tracker over the boundary, but ended up in the safe hands of Rashid Khan at sweeper cover, putting an end to a magnificent 74-run innings off 81 deliveries. Before his departure, he hit Rashid, whom the Afghan captain saved to bowl a few overs at the end, for two over-boundaries resulting in the bowler losing his composure.
Imrul also went for a couple of boundaries in the slog-overs to lessen the gap between his runs and the number of deliveries faced. Putting up a 128-run stand with Mahmudullah, Imrul played an unbeaten 72-run knock laced with six boundaries, after facing 89 deliveries and lifted Bangladesh's total to 249 runs for 7 wickets.
When the Afghan bowlers and fielders were chopping through the brittle middle-order of the Tigers, Imrul, who did not even get the time to practice and adapt to the unfamiliar hot and humid conditions in the UAE, stood beside Bangladesh’s “crisis man” Mahmudullah and offered the maximum positive outcome to his team in a hostile situation.
While the well-prepared youngsters of the team failed to deliver, it was once again the experienced shoulders that the Tigers had to count on. With a national call-up out of nowhere, Imrul also had to sacrifice his regular batting position in order to make space for the tyros up the order.
Mustafiz’s confident last over stole the limelight by snatching the match from under Afghanistan’s nose, but one must genuflect to the bravery and promise that a 31-year-old Imrul showed despite playing in the colored outfit after nearly a year-long gap. If Mustafiz was the one putting the last nail into the rollicking Afghans' coffin, it was Imrul who really put them in the casket.
