Sabbir’s fielding misery proves fatal for Tigers
Collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh fielding had been quite consistent in the recent past but that hardly remained the same way when they met Australia in their sixth match at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
Australia piled up huge 381-5 on the board on the back of a scintillating century by David Warner, who looked to be playing shots all around the ground.
But the left-hander can consider himself lucky as Tigers best fielder Sabbir Rahman spoiled the opportunity provided by Warner on two occasions during his stay at the wicket, with the one coming up at the initial stage while the second at the midway of his innings that eventually ended at 166 runs.
Since the birth of the shorter format of cricket, fielding has become more important for a team to win matches as missing out a catch is also considered equivalent to losing a match.
Sabbir, who replaced Mossadek Hossain due to his shoulder injury, is considered as one of the finest fielder available in the Tigers dressing room but his performance against Australia looked to have gone down beyond his standard.
Sabbir often claimed that fielding is the most heroic side of him as a cricketer and his passion for fielding is well known to everyone following Tigers cricket but it seemed he was not carrying the composure during the game against Australia that happens to be his first game in the tournament.
When Bangladesh bowlers started bowling against Australia, they knew, they were bowling against the two best batsmen (David Warner and Aron Finch) of this ICC World Cup 2019 who were leading the top run getter list of this tournament.
Sabbir was fielding at point while Mashrafe Mortaza was delivering his last ball of his 3rd over to Warner.
It was a short ball outside off that prompted Warner to plays an uppish square cut and it went right to Sabbir at point as he was stationed there but he didn't pick it and as a result though he got his hands to it and parries it away to square third man.
Immediately, Bangladesh body language got down to certain level as Warner in company of Aaron Finch punished them without any mercy in front of the near full crowd.
After that Bangladesh got them with an agonizing situation with the question of how costly that drop is going to be for the team as Warner was on 10 runs at that point and if Sabbir could hold on to it that wicket could send Bangladesh not only in a better position but also provide Mashrafe with his second wicket in this World Cup, who has been harshly criticized for not meeting up with the expectation from him.
That drop of Warner became more costly until the batsman added another 59 runs when Sabbir again gave Warner another revival with missing out a run out chance that could depart the Aussie batsman from the pitch.
It was Mehidi Hasan’s third delivery of 26th over to Khawaja, a mix-up between the two batsmen and Warner survives as Sabbir fumbled with the ball - Khawaja came down the track, got to the ball on the full and toe-ended the drive to mid-on, he was always coming for the run, but Warner was backing up and was late on the start - the fumble by the fielder eventually ended up saving his innings.
And finally when the Australian opener leaving the crease with 166 runs by his name added 153 runs more from the first catch that Sabbir Rahman dropped who consider fielding is the most polished side of him as a cricketer.
Bangladesh will be chasing record total to earn a win against Australia but had they grabbed those chances things could have been different all together.
