Bangladesh’s dramatic collapse on Monday was so sudden that it had a
shattering effect not only on the cricket fans in the country but also
on the genuine lover of the game
Partab Ramchand29-May-2016Bangladesh’s dramatic collapse on Monday was so sudden that it had a
shattering effect not only on the cricket fans in the country but also
on the genuine lover of the game. How can one analyse the performance
of a team that holds its own till the morning of the fourth day and
then goes down so abysmally that the match is lost tamely by the end
of the same day? Long after the inaugural Test against India was lost
at the Bangabandhu stadium by nine wickets, the home team was still
trying to come to terms with the defeat. Perhaps this was the expected
result on the eve of the game but not after Bangladesh had written a
script which had them sharing the honour stakes even as play resumed
this morning.A keen duel for supremacy for the first innings was on the cards when
India resumed at 366 for seven but thanks to Sunil Joshi and Ajit
Agarkar and their eighth wicket partnership of 56 runs off 15.5 overs,
India went ahead without losing a wicket. Joshi who had already taken
five wickets in the Bangladesh first innings now inched towards his
century which would have bracketed him along with Vinoo Mankad (at
Lord’s in 1952) and Polly Umrigar (at Port of Spain in 1962) as the
only other Indian players to have notched up the rare double of a
century and five wickets in an innings in a Test match. But the 31-
year-old left handed all rounder from Karnataka was not destined to
join the greats. For, on 92 he holed out to mid off. It was a sad end
to a gallant innings. Joshi had come in at a crucial juncture on
Sunday and along with Ganguly and Agarkar managed to give India a
slender lead which proved of enormous psychological advantage in the
ultimate analysis. Joshi batted four hours, faced 180 balls and hit
nine fours.The tail did not offer much resistance and Agarkar was last out for a
valuable 34 off 88 balls. He hit five fours. Agarkar’s wicket gave
Naimur Rahman his sixth scalp of the innings and India ended 29 runs
in front on the first innings.India were all out just before lunch and with five sessions left in
the game, all kinds of scenarios were being discussed. Certainly there
were so many possibilities but none could have bargained for what
actually happened. A team that had batted so bravely for almost eleven
hours and 153.3 overs to score 400 in the first innings caved in off
just 46.3 overs and a little over 200 minutes the second time around
for a meagre 91. It was inexplicable. There was nothing outstanding in
the Indian bowling and the wicket, but for the inevitable wear and
tear on a fourth day pitch, was still good to bat on. And yet the
Bangladesh batsmen well and truly psyched themselves out. They were on
the backfoot from the moment Shahriar Hossain ducked into a short ball
from Srinath and got hit on the left shoulder. In pain, Shahriar
retired to receive attention. Mehrab Hossain and Habibul Bashar
painfully took the score to 32 in the 13th over when the former played
a loose stroke outside the off stump at Zaheer Khan and was held low
down by Murali Kartik at backward point.After this, it was verily a procession. One by one the Bangladesh
batsmen fell to injudicious shot selection. Except for Bashar who made
30 off 63 balls with four boundary hits and wicketkeeper Khaled Masud
who scored an unbeaten 21 off 68 balls with one boundary, none of the
other batsmen reached double digits. The lofty reputation the batsmen
earned by their gallant display in the first innings was lost by their
shoddy showing in the second and in the end the cynics, who doubted
Bangladesh’s lasting qualities, proved to be right. Making the most of
this pathetic showing were Srinath, Agarkar and Joshi. The 31-year-old
Indian spearhead who was unimpressive in the first innings would have
regained his confidence by taking three for 19 but, truth be told,
these were flattering figures. But then no less flattering were the
figures of Joshi (3 for 27) and Agarkar (2 for 16). The batsmen just
had no clue in tackling the short deliveries, which Srinath and
Agarkar peppered them with.India were now left to get only 63 runs for victory and about the only
interest left was the margin of the win and when that would come
about. Sadagopan Ramesh was bowled by Hasibul Hoosein, essaying an
extravagant shot but SS Das (22) and Rahul Dravid (41) steered India
to victory with a day to spare. Dravid, the more aggressive of the
two, hit five fours and a six while Das had three fours. Incidentally,
Das also took five catches in the match. India had to get the runs
from 15 overs if they wanted to finish the match by the evening and
they accomplished this off the last ball of the 15th over. With the
light murky, the floodlights were turned on midway through the Indian
innings under the playing conditions. It was probably the first time
that India were playing a Test under floodlights. It was also a first
for Ganguly – a victory in his first Test as captain. He joined the
ranks of Polly Umrigar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Sachin
Tendulkar as the only other Indian captains to have achieved this
feat. The Indian team also presented Anshuman Gaekwad with the perfect
parting gift with the Test match being the last assignment for the
coach during his short, second tenure. Not unexpectedly, Joshi was
declared man of the match.
