Fizz redeems his old avatar in a show of deadly bowling
Photo - ICC
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh leading World Cup wicket taker Mustafizur Rahman returned back to his old self as he proved his worth against favourite opponent India with a five wicket haul during their WC fixture on Tuesday.
India were looking to post a total over 350 at one stage before the mystery bowler decided to come up with some of his old tricks hidden under his sleeves.
India looked like getting to 340 but Mustafizur and Shakib bowled brilliant last spells to peg back India. India were 180 for 1 in the 30th over but weren't able to accelerate as wickets kept falling regularly.
The double blow from Mustafizur- who picked 5-59 and more precisely when he removed Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya with successive deliveries put India on the back foot and the Asian giants could not recover enough to post an unreachable cricket.
In 2017 Mustafizur was the most successful bowler with 11match 14wkts from 11 matches with an economy rate 5.48 while Mashrafee was second with 13 wickets from 13 matches with an economy of 5.75
In 2018 Mustafizur was the most successful bowler with 29 wickets from 18 matched with an economy of 4.20 while Mashrafee was behind him with 26 wickets from 20 matches with an economy of 4.91.
Mustafizur is still leading the table with 24 wickets from 13 matches while in the World Cup the left-arm pace bowler grabbed 14 wickets from seven matches.
Mustafizur has had to endure a number of injuries in his career so far. The start of the ordeal was in England in early 2016 where he picked up a shoulder strain playing in the T20 Blast. A grade-two lateral ankle injury followed while he was taking part in a football drill, ruling him out of the start of Bangladesh Premier League 2017. He also missed the T20I series against Afghanistan in Dehradun, which Afghanistan won 3-0, and also missed the Tests in the Caribbean, which Bangladesh again lost 2-0.
Mustafizur debuted in 2015 in a T20I against Pakistan but he managed to grab the spotlight while on his ODI debut against India with his five-wicket haul and followed that with another five-for against the Asian neighbours. He helped Bangladesh seal the ODI series against India for the first time and has since been considered an integral part of their bowling unit.
Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman felt that his go-to deliveries - the slower balls and the cutters - will be his best friends in the World Cup in England and it proved to be just like it in the tournament so far.
The left-armer rose to prominence with his trademark fast off-cutters, troubling the best batsmen in the world, and quickly gained a reputation as one of the best white-ball bowlers. But now, having seen his rise stunted somewhat, with injuries playing their part, the pacer is hoping to stick to his strengths at the all-important World Cup.
"I don't have many things apart from slower balls and cutters," Mustafizur told cricfrenzy prior to his departure for the World Cup.
‘’For me, those [slower balls and cutter] are very important deliveries and I am hoping to stick with it. But I am trying to learn new variations. The wicket will be good for batting (in England) but I will try to give my best,’’ he concluded.
