Tigers shine in fielding

Taskin Ahmed shined with the ball on Monday to ensure Bangladesh’s win in their first match of the 2022 T20 World Cup over Netherlands, but the underlying hero of the game for the Tigers was their fielding.

Bangladesh’s fielding has been under the cosh for months now as they have not just regularly dropped catches, but have also been sluggish in terms of ground fielding.

On Monday, the difference was evident and the change came as a fresh breath of air as Bangladesh produced one of the finest fielding performances of the T20 World Cup thus far.

According to CricViz, Bangladesh saved 14 runs with their fielding, the best in the tournament. What was more evident to the naked eye was how they did it.

Take the two run-outs of the Dutch innings. For the first one, Max O’Dowd pushed Shakib Al Hasan’s delivery to deep mid-wicket and hoped for a two. But Afif Hossain ran at a quick pace from the square-leg boundary, picked up the ball with one hand and in one swift motion, sent an inch-perfect throw to Shakib at the bowling end, which Shakib gathered and ran O’Dowd out, who was sent back by Colin Ackermann at the other end.

In the same over, Najmul Hossain Shanto produced a moment of brilliance. Ackermann drove Shakib’s delivery through cover, and Najmul chased the delivery down to prevent the boundary, before recovering and sending a brilliant throw to wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan Sohan, who took the bails off to send Tom Cooper back for a diamond duck.