Home ›› 24 Mar 2023 ›› Sport
There was a forecast for rain in Sylhet. Little did Ireland know that it would not come from the sky but from the Bangladesh pacers. And that it would not be drops of water but fire.
The Bangladesh pace trifecta of Hasan Mahmud, Taskin Ahmed, and Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury completely ripped the Irish apart, taking all 10 wickets among them, an unforeseen event in the Tigers’ history.
Across all formats, the highest number of wickets taken by Bangladesh pacers in a match was nine. On Thursday, they took all of them, and led the way for Bangladesh to claim their first-ever 10-wicket win.
Among the three, the youngest – Hasan – was the one who led the attack, picking up his maiden five-wicket haul in international cricket. Taskin took three and Ebadot chipped in with two.
The surface and condition provided some help but the Bangladesh pacers were immaculate from the very start as they were sent in to bowl first.
Hasan dealt the first blow when he got Stephen Doheny caught behind in the fifth over after putting the Irish openers on a leash until then.
In the ninth over, the youngster struck twice. First, his beautiful inswing delivery caught Paul Stirling flat-footed and plumb LBW, before another inswinger hit Harry Tector on the pads, although it was given not out. A review was taken and Tector had to walk.
In the next over, the last one of the first powerplay, Taskin got the Irish skipper with a ball that moved away as Andrew Balbirnie could only edge it to hand Najmul Hossain Shanto a regulation catch at first slip.
And then, after a 42-run partnership between Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher, came Ebadot with two rippers.
The pacer, nicknamed the Sylhet Rocket by pace-bowling coach Allan Donald, produced a brilliant toe-crusher, which tailed inwards in the air and caught Tucker out LBW.
George Dockrell came in next but had no answer to the next delivery, which clocked 141 kph, as the ball nipped back and sent his stumps cartwheeling.
Taskin then came back and got Andy McBrine and Mark Adair in the space of three balls. First, he cramped the former with a short-ish delivery, which resulted in a simple catch for Nasum Ahmed, and then, an inswinging delivery got through the gates to get rid of Adair.
Hasan put the final nails in the coffin as he deceived Campher with a slower bouncer, which the batter could only guide to Taskin at long leg, and then got Graham Hume LBW after another successful review to wrap it up.
“Now I can proudly say we have a solid, solid, solid fast-bowling department. We need to keep believing in our players - there will be ups and downs but we have to back them and keep going forward. I have the belief that this unit can be one of the best in the world,” Bangladesh skipper Tamim Iqbal said after the match.
Hasan, who won the Player of the Match award, credited pace-bowling coach Donald for their improvement.
“Very excited with the performance. The weather and conditions helped the fast bowlers, and I enjoyed bowling here. Allan Donald has been the one man who’s been behind our improvement, the bowlers have improved gradually as well,” he said.
Ahead of the third ODI, Donald was full of praise for the pacers and on the matchday, they did not disappoint. They were fast, aggressive, and accurate, giving the Irish batters no room to breathe.
Bangladesh have long lamented for a solid pace-bowling unit but that wait seems to be over as all of the pacers seem to be firing, and with Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam waiting on the bench, the Tigers can finally say that they have a competent pace attack that can work on any pitch across the globe, handing them one less thing to worry about in the World Cup.
What they would want from now is that the quicks keep up the good work and fire on all cylinders in the World Cup. Because only then Bangladesh might achieve their goal, which is at least reaching
the semis.
