A classy win at a height and more

Our national cricket team has sent a balmy breeze from atop Dharmashala down across to the plains of Bangladesh. The fragrance of victory over the Dutch in a must-win qualifying T-20 World Cup round has had a sniff of the sweet aroma of the oak trees in the mountainous woodlands of the Indian state of Himachal. 

Are the superlatives suffused with a euphoria? Not quite, if you unroll the layered saga of an extraordinary victory against Netherlands. First and foremost, you thank your stars that Bangladeshi players who were potted plants from a humid delta into the nippy clime of Dharmashala, 4,500 feet above the sea level breathed adequately to be carving a classic win. You wonder at the resilience of the team. 

I had been to Dharmashala some two decades ago, and much younger man that I was then, had difficulty inhaling thinning oxygen at such great heights. It was just sight-seeing for me; but for the Bangladesh cricketers it was a rigorous hard-fought cricket match. 

When captain Mashrafe expressed apprehension over minimal time given to his team for acclimatization in a rather eerie environ, I could exactly relate to him with full resonance.

The saga of the match with Netherlands has been stuffed with excitement, struggle, fluctuating fortunes and finally a nail-biting yet decisive finish. The spectacular drama was played out within the range of 20 plus 20 overs meaning 240 balls in all bowled and batted.

The magic moments were when at the 17th over, Mashrafe bowled to a tight length and line conceding just three runs and when Taskin applied a screeching halt to Netherlands run rate in the last two overs.

Of the Mashrafe over, Peter Borren, the Dutch captain 'made no secret about the fact that that particular over yielding three runs and a wicket, played the biggest part in their defeat.' 

The timely intervention of Mashrafe was another proof of his captaincy acumen as he says, 'I could read the wicket and the batsman more than anybody else at that moment.' 

The Bangladeshi spectators had butterflies in the stomach when an Al Amin over gave away 16 runs at an advanced stage of the game with stony silence enveloping the stands. 

In the final analysis, Tamim's 83 runs and his staying on the wicket till the 20th over made a classy contribution to a total of 153 runs giving a strong foundation for a successful chase. Actually, the victory against Netherlands is the hand-maiden of batting and bowling combining with maturity and effectiveness boding extremely well for the future of Bangladesh cricket. At the same time, Tamim's singular campaign highlights deficiencies in other batsmen under high voltage pressure.

Tamim is the 6th batsman in the world to have played out all 20 overs in a match after Tellekaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka; Ahmed Shehzad of Pakistan; Cris Gayl of West Indies; Brend MacCulum of New Zealand; and Miburg of Holland. This is part of the matrix of progress we have been able to choreograph; so much more we have to strive for indeed! 

The significance of the victory against Netherlands goes far beyond its tiny margin of 8 runs, in more senses than one. It saved us from heartbreak, fresh from our runner up status in the just concluded Asia Cup T-20 tournament. More to the point, we were in a face-off with Netherlands, a team outside the ICC ranking top ten sides raising our stake that much higher. A loss would have had a devastating effect on the team psychology.

The early success should act as tonic for the Bangladesh team which they need, especially in the nippy weather of Dharmashala to face Ireland, a good team, and Oman which has defeated the former in a two-run stunner, if that is of any solace. Our takeaways from the winning streak can prove handy when and if we should meet the top eight ranking teams. 

Here is an issue: The ICC sticks to a pedigree regime or call it an excellence-driven competitive regimen. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are ninth and tenth respectively among the ten top ranking ICC teams. They are required on the T-20 format to play with lesser ICC associate teams such as they are doing now to qualify for the next higher stage of playing the top eight teams. 

Just imagine the mélange of cricket ahead of us, let alone our women's cricketing squad in India pitted against world class teams in their T-20 World Cup. 

The writer is an Associate Editor, The Daily Star.