Bangladesh batsman Mehedi Hasan is clean bowled out by Australian paceman Mitchell Starc during their ICC Champions Trophy match at The Oval in London on Monday. — AFP photo
The moment Tamim Iqbal top-edged Mitchell Starc, it left Bangladeshi fans shell-shocked, mostly because the shot ended a fine innings in an unfortunate manner.
The ball that pitched on the leg side was not particularly that much threatening and Tamim did little wrong in choosing his favourite one-legged whip.
Tamim scored innumerable runs with this shot in the past and opted it to complete his second century in the ICC Champions Trophy in as many matches.
But he ended up hoisting a catch to Josh Hazlewood at long leg to get dismissed for 95 runs, for third time in his career the opener falling to this score in ODIs.
It also ended any chance Bangladesh had to put a competitive score against Australia in what was their battle for survival in tournament at the Oval.
Starc took very little time to let them realise the truth, wracking havoc in the same over to take two more wickets before returning in his next over to finish with 4-29 and fold Bangladesh for182 runs.
It was the lowest score for Bangladesh in a complete innings in two years since they were all out for 160 against South Africa at home in 2015.
No one had expected the Tigers to make a fight out of it against the reigning world champions and they could not do it either.
With a very small target and having just one point in the bag, Australia apprehended the weather more than the Bangladeshi bowlers and true to their fear rain halted their innings after 16 overs.
The match was finally declared abandoned at 2:19am Bangladesh Standard Time, giving Bangladesh a lucky point that kept their faint semi-final hopes alive.
Australia were 83-1 during the rain break with David Warner batting on 40 alongside skipper Steven Smith, 22 not out. Aaron Finch was the only batsman dismissed as he fell to Rubel Hossain leg-before for 19.
Irrespective of the state of the game, Bangladesh had very little to be proud of especially after
the manner in which they batted having elected to bat first.
Apart from Tamim Iqbal, who smashed six fours and three sixes, including two off successive deliveries, only two other Bangladeshi –Sakib al Hasan(29) and Mehedi Hasan (14) – could reach double figure.
Bangladesh batsmen other than Tamim, who was never shy of giving the balls right treatment, looked to be overawed by the Australian bowlers and they were made to pay dearly for it.
Soumya nicked one to the keeper after a struggling innings as did Imrul Kayes before playing a mistimed shot off a short-pitch delivery straight to the point fielder.
But the dismissal of Mushfiqur Rahim for nine runs perhaps illustrated the state of Bangladesh batsmen’s mindset mostly.
One of the most technically sound batsmen of Bangladesh was adjudged leg before of a straight military medium pace of Moises Henriques as he missed the line.
But the replay suggested he got a faint edge but the batsman looked so much out of focus that he himself could not realise it and did not go for a review.
Out of form Sakib struck a four of the second ball he faced to give himself some belief but once he fell leg-before to Travis Head it was left on Tamim to lift the Tigers, which the left-hander could not do despite his best effort.
Source: New Age
