Majestic Malan tames Tigers

It was a great effort from the Bangladesh bowlers although their batters almost gave them nothing, but in the end, Dawid Malan’s experience came through and ensured that the World Champions were over the line by three wickets, not the hosts.

At one point though, yet another One-Day International win at home for the Tigers looked like the bigger possibility as the visitors were five-down with the required runs still in triple digits.

That came courtesy of some courageous bowling from the Bangladesh bowlers up top, picking up four wickets within the first 20 overs, including English skipper Jos Buttler, to hand themselves some hope of defending their feeble total of 209.

However, it was Malan who reigned supreme from there on. The left-handed batter reached his fifty off 92 balls, showing calm and composure dealing with the tricky surface that the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium offered, probably with all the experience he gathered of these pitches while playing in the Bangladesh Premier League and the Dhaka Premier League for a decade.

He put up significant stands, first with Will Jacks, then Moeen Ali, and then the more crucial one with Adil Rashid for the eighth wicket, which produced 51 runs and took them to victory.

Malan took 42 balls to reach triple figures from his fifty, and ended up unbeaten on 114 off 145 balls, his fourth ODI century, and fittingly, ended the match by thrashing a boundary through the mid-wicket boundary.

“Definitely (playing in Bangladesh previously helped). I think the more you can play in different conditions, the more your game grows. I have had a bit of experience playing here, it’s not easiest of wickets to start on. It’s about trusting the method that if you get through those tough times, you are able to cash in at the end,” he said.

Bangladesh, though, will feel that it was not Malan but themselves who cost them the game as their batting effort was subpar, and it was some brilliant effort from the bowlers, especially Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, which allowed them to sniff the victory at one stage.

“Maybe we were 20-25 runs short, but we made a good comeback with the ball when we started. We could not finish it well. We lost quick wickets in the middle, from which we could not come back. But how we were bowling and how the wicket was behaving, it was possible for us to win, but it did not happen somehow and Dawid Malan batted really well,” Najmul Hossain Shanto, the only batter to go past fifty for Bangladesh in the match, said.

“The fact that we restricted Bangladesh to 210 helped. If we were chasing 250-260, we would have had to go harder against their bowlers when they were bowling exceptionally well. They kept pegging us back but credit to us, we found a way to get partnerships and get over the line,” Malan accepted that it was easier because of Bangladesh’s low total.

Bangladesh had a good start but both openers - Tamim Iqbal (23 off 32) and Liton Das (7 off 15) - were back within the first powerplay, and a sluggish knock from Mushfiqur Rahim (16 off 34) definitely did not help.

The only meaningful partnership came between Najmul and Mahmudullah Riyad as the former picked up a fifty and the latter scored 31, though the failure of them both to prolong their innings meant Bangladesh could never capitalise on that 53-run stand.

It was only for Taskin and Taijul, who scored 14 and 10, that the Tigers crossed 200 as only five batters crossed into double figures including those two, with some major help from the English bowlers, who gave away 26 runs in extras.

In reply, Shakib Al Hasan struck in the first over to send Jason Roy (4 off 6) back, and by the time their innings reached the one-third phase, England were four down with 145 runs still required.

The rest was all about Malan. A majestic innings from the left-handed English batter did not allow the efforts from the Bangladesh bowlers tarnish what he claimed as one of his best innings ever.

“When you retire and walk away, and think about the innings that was extremely satisfying, this will definitely be up there for me. Just the situation of the game, the conditions, and being there at the end. A lot of the times you get the team close and you get out, and then you are disappointed. But to be there at the end and make sure we won the game, is extremely satisfying,” the player of the match said.