Mustafiz back to his best

On pitches tailor-made for his cutters, Mustafizur Rahman wreaked havoc in Bangladesh’s 4-1 twenty20 international series win against Australia.

But against New Zealand, in slightly better batting conditions, Mustafiz struggled as he managed only one wicket giving away 63 runs in his eight overs.

But in the fourth T20I, the ‘Cutter Master’ returned to his brilliant best as he, along with Nasum Ahmed, broke the backbone of the Kiwi batting lineup to pack them up for only 93.

Mustafiz picked up four wickets and gave away just 12 runs, bowling 13 dot balls. He picked up the wickets of Tom Blundell, Cole McConchie, Will Young and Blair Tickner, all with his signature style.

Blundell was confounded by a cutter that he chipped to Naim Sheikh at mid-on, and in the same over, McConchie fell prey to yet another cutter, and this time, the ‘Fizz’ did not need any help as he grabbed a stunning one-handed catch.

Then in the last over, he dismissed the set batsman Will Young who was on 46 and then wrapped it by dismissing Tickner, both with impeccable cutters.

It was not just the wickets that were great, but the way he was quite unplayable was the key factor for Bangladesh. Despite bowling a couple of looseners, Mustafiz looked more like himself than in the past two matches, and that is definitely a great sign for the Tigers.

Mustafiz getting back his form after a short break is surely a delight for Bangladesh because the T20 World Cup is in sight, and Bangladesh need their best weapon fired up for any sort of success in the tournament.

Mustafiz also had an achievement to his name in this match as with four wickets in the match, he now has 76 wickets in T20Is, which makes him the eighth-highest wicket-taker in T20I history.

“Fizz is exceptional all the way,” a content Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah said in the post-match presentation of the match.

Mustafiz now has eight wickets in the ongoing series, the joint-highest with Ajaz Patel. In the final match on Sunday, Mustafiz will surely now be backing himself to claim the highest wicket-taker award for himself.

And as long as Mustafiz is among the wickets, Bangladesh will definitely hope of claiming another 4-1 series win over a Trans-Tasman side.