Midas Miraz strikes gold

If there was such a thing as a purple patch mountain, there is only one man that could be found at the apex.

And that, would be Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

Or you could simply just say that he has been blessed by Dionysus with the golden touch, the same that King Midas had.

But while Midas only met misfortune with the blessing, Miraz is reaching new heights as he appeared as Bangladesh’s saviour twice on the trot.

And on both occasions, he took a match, which India thought to be in nothing but their control, and turned them around in brilliant fashion.

In the first match, Bangladesh needed 51 runs with only one wicket in hand. With the aid of Mustafizur Rahman, Miraz pulled off the unthinkable as they sealed victory with that wicket intact.

In the second, Miraz went one better.

When he came to the crease, his team were rattled at 69-6. It seemed like the confidence from the first match had just evaporated and India, in the hunt for a comeback, had

put their whip right around the Tigers’ neck.

But from there, Miraz put together a 148-run stand with Mahmudullah Riyad, the highest for Bangladesh for any wicket, to loosen that grip and then turn the tide in their favour.

The brilliance of Miraz’s innings doesn’t lie in the number he scored, but in the way he paced his whole innings. Throughout his knock, Miraz went at a pace that was better than their side, and once the team needed him to go up a gear, he did so in style.

At the death of the Bangladesh innings, Miraz came alive. He got a lucky boundary off Umran Malik in the 47th over, but that was that.

In the penultimate over, Miraz hit Malik for a four through the covers in the first ball and repeated the exercise three balls later. In the final ball, he probably produced the shot that proved that he was at the zenith of form.

He lined up for a scoop, but Umran bowled it a bit wide, meaning Miraz had to adjust. And he did. He turned his bat face and managed to lift it to go through to the boundary beating the fielder at deep third man.

In the final over, he first hoicked Shardul Thakur for a six over square leg, and then a ball later, went even further in the crowd over deep mid-wicket to go three runs away from his ton.

He cleared the infield in the next ball, but the ball, for once in the innings, did not hit the boundary cushions as Miraz ran two. And when Thakur gifted him with a full toss in the final ball, he hit it in the leg side and went ecstatic in his celebrations, just like he should.

And after his job was done with the bat, he came back with the ball to dismiss KL Rahul, India’s top-scorer of the first ODI, and Shreyas Iyer, India’s best batter on the day, to ensure that Bangladesh were on the path of victory.

But saying that was all he did would be unfair as the all-rounder was a livewire on the field. The ball rarely went past him as he dived in every direction possible to stop the Indian runs from flowing, and also took the catch to dismiss Shikhar Dhawan.

Miraz has pretty much sealed the player of the series award by now, and India head coach Rahul Dravid could not help but praise him.

“Mehidy (Miraz) has played fantastically in this series. Different kinds of innings, but both innings were really good. Built a really good partnership with Mahmudullah today. And especially at the back end there, where they scored 100 runs in 10 overs, which was the killer for us,” the India coach said after the match.

For Miraz, now it’s time to continue on that path, and keep reaching new heights. Or maybe just touch some more matches with that Midas touch.