Image Credit- ICC
The final 30 minutes of the India-Bangladesh World Cup
match in Pune resembled the conclusion of a Bollywood film with a cricket
theme. The main character scored a century and won the game just in time.
Nearly flawlessly, Virat Kohli chased his 48th ODI century. Within twenty yards
of the bat, he sprinted two times. The audience applauded as he hammered fours
and sixes. He and KL Rahul farmed the strike. When things were tight, even the
umpire missed a nearly definite wide.
The Bangladeshi players sat back and pretended they
had no control over what was happening in the middle of the pitch. Bangladesh
made no attempt to sluggish the game, which would not have made a difference to
Kohli’s focus. Not even a peculiar by-play, such as the bowler pausing mid-stride.
Instead of what really happened, where it appeared as though they were just
waiting for the ordeal to end, a cheeky wide as Kohli was getting near to
reaching his milestone might have demonstrated that they were still capable of
influencing this contest.
Acting captain Najmul Hossain Shanto is looking at his
batters to provide it.
“We were well prepared. Our top order did well
but the two set batters [Litton Das and Tanzid Hasan] should have played long
knocks. If one of them scored 120 or 130, it would have made life easier for
the latter batters. I think we couldn’t bat well in the middle overs. One of
our openers should have batted a bit longer. It would have been a different
ball game.
“We made our best start, adding 93 runs for the
opening stand. But we couldn’t bat well in the middle overs. It is our
responsibility to bat well. I bat at No. 3, which is an important position. We
had couple of soft dismissals. It was a good wicket but the batters didn’t take
responsibility. We have made big scores before too. If Litton and Tanzid batted
for longer, it would have helped Mushy [Mushfiqur Rarhim] bhai or [Mahmudullah]
Riyad bhai later in the innings.”