‘Shakib is the best in the business’

Rain has been a constant companion of the Bangladesh team since their fourth World Cup match against Sri Lanka was washed out in Bristol on June 11, and it was a presence in Taunton yesterday during their first practice session since that game.

However, in their eagerness to get their World Cup campaign back on track and lift themselves from seventh position after four matches, 12 of the 15-man squad started practice in the afternoon drizzle at the Coopers Associates County Ground. The small ground will be the venue for the Tigers’ next match against the West Indies on June 17. The players missing from the optional practice session were Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das and Rubel Hossain. Shakib, who sustained a left thigh strain in the match against England on June 8, has been advised to rest and may join the team during practice today or tomorrow.

During practice itself, the Tigers appeared to have overcome the gloom of rain setting back their race to the semifinals, and were enjoying the warm-up game of keepy-uppy and their fielding drills. As the sun broke through batsmen like Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim were eager to get the net batting started as there was no telling how long the good weather would stay.

Apart from Shakib’s injury, there are lingering concerns regarding Mohammad Saifuddin’s back problem which first flared up during the warm-up match against India on May 28. Bangladesh bowling coach Courtney Walsh said yesterday that Saifuddin had played a couple of games ‘under duress’ but hoped that the two days of rest would be good enough to have the pace-bowling all-rounder back to 95 per cent fitness. Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has been nursing hamstring trouble since the India match as well. Both players, however, looked fit enough during fielding practice, both diving around to take catches.

With the match still three days away, settling on a playing eleven was still a way off. The square boundaries in Taunton are short, which may play into West Indies’ power-hitters’ hands. One change could be to include an extra pacer in Rubel Hossain, but Walsh said that they would have to see the pitch closer to the match day to come to that decision.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes, the hero of the final for the hosts as they clinched their maiden World Cup title, said that he will be apologising to Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson for the rest of his life after his accidental nudge with the bat led to one of the most critical moments in the game.

With England needing nine runs off three deliveries, Stokes struck one towards mid-wicket, and while going for a double, his bat came in the way of Martin Guptill’s throw from the deep. The ball ricocheted off his bat as he dived at the non-striker’s end and it went to the boundary. England were awarded six runs and they went on to seal the match in Super Over following more drama.

After the match, Christchurch-born Stokes said: “I am pretty lost for words. All the hard work to get here and be world champions, it’s an amazing feeling. Playing against New Zealand is always a good event, they are good lads.”

“I will be apologising to Kane for the rest of my life [re: the overthrow for the six]…It was written in the stars to happen for us,” Stokes added.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson pointed to luck not working in his side’s favour after the game.

“That [Stokes’s accidental boundary] was a little bit of a shame, wasn’t it? You just hope it doesn’t happen at moments like that. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be for us,” Williamson said.

Kane Williamson stood with hands outstretched as an accurate throw from Martin Guptill ricocheted off a diving Ben Stokes’s bat and went for four in the 100th over of a sublime World Cup final at Lord’s on Sunday. If the ball had just found the keeper’s glove, or even if it deflected at a less acute angle and went to the short third man fielder, England would have needed seven runs from the last two balls, but the overthrow made it three from two. A tie, then a tied Super Over later, England had won the World Cup through the quite irrelevant measure of having hit more boundaries over the course of the game.

After scoring 27 per cent of his team’s runs over 11 games and also embodying the very philosophy that brought his team to the final, no one had more right to be disappointed, angered, disillusioned and frustrated by that overthrow. But Williamson put his hands down and got back to the business of leading his team with a steady hand. He repeated that when marshalling his fielders in the Super Over and, even when all was lost and all of Lord’s was celebrating, Williamson’s composure held when he talked to the TV cameras minutes after Guptill was run out trying to complete the World Cup-winning run.

For those who followed Williamson through the World Cup, this acceptance of ‘uncontrollables’ -- a word he repeated on numerous occasions before and after the epic final --  should not be surprising. While for most captains talking about focusing on their own team’s strengths rather than the opposition’s is little more than a soundbyte, Williamson lived that mantra and his team followed that example. It is this acceptance of not being able to control everything in the wide scope provided by a 50-over match that brought New Zealand to within inches of winning their maiden World Cup.

On paper, their team was formidable, but Guptill’s indifferent form at the top of the order put pressure on the middle order. It was none other than Williamson who bore the brunt of that pressure and with the continuing frailty at the top of the order, reassessed conditions and realities expertly to give New Zealand a fighting chance time and again.

While a loss of form or injuries would have had most captains cursing their luck, Williamson just recognised the reality of the situation. Instead, he hit an unbeaten 106 to secure a four-wicket win against South Africa and in the very next match, scored 148 against West Indies to set up a five-run win.

Even so, by the time the semifinals rolled around, not many would have given New Zealand a chance of winning against India because the Black Caps had scraped through on net run rate after losing their last three league games. But there again, Williamson scored 67 in New Zealand’s 239 for eight -- a total that seemed sub-par but, in another example of Williamson’s pitch-perfect assessment, proved to be very competitive as New Zealand won by 18 runs.

As captain, he focused on his team’s strength -- their superb seam bowling attack that could take wickets in English conditions and cover up for the oft-misfiring batting lineup -- and reassessed accordingly. His team followed by example. Even as Williamson departed for 30 in the final, the rest of the batsmen did not panic and just focused on getting a total that they believed their bowlers could defend through age-old wicket-taking methods, regardless of how strong England’s batting was.

It was an uncontrollable.

Although heartbroken, Williamson graciously accepted the player-of-the-tournament trophy at the end of the match. It is not just Bangladeshis who have asked why Shakib Al Hasan -- with the greatest all-round performance in World Cup history -- did not win the prize.  But for fans of cricket, there is rich justice in recognising a player who tapped into the essence of the game, understood and accepted its cruelties, scored the runs he could and in the process, led his team to within inches of the World Cup. Williamson may not have the coveted trophy, but his example over the last month and a half has been a triumph for cricket.

David Warner scored an unbeaten 89 as champions Australia launched their World Cup defence with a seven-wicket thrashing of Afghanistan in Bristol yesterday after New Zealand pacer Matt Henry led an inspired bowling unit to run through Sri Lanka’s batting in the Black Caps’ 10-wicket win.

In his first major international appearance since a year-long ban for his role in a ball-tampering scandal, Warner scored a brisk 89 off 114 balls with the help of eight boundaries. He looked in fine form and will probably rue the fact that the Afghans had not scored a bit more given that the Aussies romped home with 91 balls to spare, as 11 more runs would have made him the first player at this World Cup to score a century.

Photo: Reuters

Afghanistan’s total of 207 all out, made following captain Gulbadin Naib’s surprising decision to bat first at Bristol on Saturday, never looked like troubling Australia.

Former Australia captain Steve Smith, who was also given a 12-month ban for his part in the ball-tampering affair in South Africa, made 18 before being dismissed just three runs shy of a victory completed.

In the day’s earlier game, Henry returned figures of 3-29 and combined with fellow paceman Lockie Ferguson who also took three wickets to bowl out Sri Lanka for 136 in 29.2 overs in Cardiff.

Martin Guptill and Colin Munro then struck unbeaten half-centuries to make short work of their modest target. The Kiwis cruised home in 16.1 overs to register their third win in a World Cup game by 10 wickets.

The right-left batting combination of Guptill, who hit 73, and Munro, who scored 58, had little trouble in smashing the Sri Lankan bowlers to all parts of the ground.

Guptill hammered eight fours and two sixes including one hit that sailed out of the ground.

But it was Henry’s spell of seven straight overs that opened the gates for New Zealand’s domination against the 1996 champions.

Henry stood out in the absence of senior paceman Tim Southee, who missed the game due to a calf injury, with his incisive pace and swing.

He struck with the second delivery of the game to send Lahiru Thirimanne trudging back to the pavilion after the left-handed opener had hit a boundary from the first ball.

Thirimanne was initially ruled not out by the on-field umpire, but the Kiwis successfully reviewed the lbw call in their favour after replays suggested the ball pitched on line and would have hit the batsman’s leg stump.

The left-handed Karunaratne, who has returned to the one-day side after a gap of four years, then put on 42 runs for the second wicket with Kusal Perera.

But Williamson kept Henry on for the bowler’s fifth over and the move paid off as he got Perera for 29 and Kusal Mendis without scoring on successive deliveries.

Dhananjaya de Silva played the hattrick ball with a glorious off drive, but soon fell to the pace of Lockie Ferguson after being trapped lbw.

Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne stood out amid the ruins with his unbeaten 52 including a 52-run stand with Thisara Perera, who made 27 off 23 balls, to give his team’s total some respect.

The rest of the batting showed little promise with three scores of nought in the innings including from former captain Angelo Mathews.

Karunaratne registered his third ODI fifty in 81 balls as he ran out of partners after Lasith Malinga was bowled by Ferguson for one.

Pacemen Colin de Grandhomme, James Neesham, Trent Boult and the team’s only spinner in the XI Mitchell Santner claimed a wicket each.