Pacers delight but Tigers suffer New York heartbreak

Before Bangladesh fans got their hearts shattered to a million pieces with an agonising four-run defeat to South Africa, they were treated with the sight of their pace trio making the opposition batters dance to their tunes on an unpredictable pitch at the Nassau Country Cricket Stadium in New York yesterday. 

Although the Group D fixture of the ICC T20 World Cup ended in a gut-wrenching defeat for the Tigers, they had plenty to take from the game, especially from the bowling front as their pacers returned to the basics to torment the batters on another testing pitch.

The Tigers pace trio of Tanzim Sakib, Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman dominated the Proteas and restricted them to 113 for four, which in the end proved four runs too many.

Tanzim was the star performer of the lot, finishing with a career-best of 3-18, while Taskin took 2-19. Mustafizur went wicketless but conceded a miserly 18 off his four overs, including a four-run final over.

The three pacers collectively conceded just 4.59 runs per over in the 12 overs they bowled, six of which occurred in the Powerplay.

The irony was, in a format where bowlers usually have to depend on their bag of tricks to contain the onslaught of batters, the Bangladesh pacers found all their success by sticking to the basics and letting the erratic pitch do the rest.

"We saw all matches have been low-scoring in New York. Tried to stick to the basics and that worked," Tanzim said after the conclusion of the first innings.

There was a deliberate attempt from the pacers of both teams to pitch the ball on a good length or maybe just a little behind to extract variable bounce from the pitch.

South Africa, who had played their previous two group-stage matches at the same venue, were well versed about the conditions and expectedly bowled well.

Bangladesh pacers, on the other hand, didn't have the height advantage of the Proteas pacers but it didn't matter as they made up for it with determination.

In the end, though, it all boiled down to Mahmudullah Riyad, who was presented with the perfect chance to complete a historic win -- a full toss from Keshav Maharaj with just six needed off two balls.

The batter had hit a six off a full toss in the previous match against Sri Lanka at a crucial stage but failed to deliver this time, getting caught right at the edge of the boundary.

Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto was proud of his bowlers but rued the defeat, feeling that it was a match they should have won.

"Tanzim really worked hard last couple of games, we needed new-ball wickets and he showed his character. This is a match we should have won, we nearly did but the last couple of overs they bowled well. It can happen in cricket," Shanto said after the match.

One team scoring 113 for six in 20 overs and the other team falling agonisingly short of it, is not something that usually happens in modern cricket, where flat pitches and dynamic batters often make the bowlers seem replaceable by bowling machines.

Cricket fans will remember the stadium in New York as the place where the game momentarily returned to its retro days. The Bangladesh fans will remember it as a place where the Tigers almost slayed the Proteas.