Indian victory largely scripted by luck

The backdrop was dramatic, full of expectancy for the growing numbers of cricket-lovers in the country – almost to a last man or woman – to feast over some excellent cricket promised by the Asia Cup series. After highly successful cricketing campaigns by Bangladesh and India in 2015-16, the opening match between them at Mirpur, Sher-e-Bangla Stadium was literally on the cusp of neighbourly, if not region-wide, excitement just yet. 

Most of all, Bangladesh being the host country, the people were awesomely keyed up given their tastes of cricketing glories in recent years and a patriotic fervour that sports in general has kindled in their hearts. Cued on the international flavour of the immortal Aamar bhaier rokte rangano Ekushey February lyric sung in 16 foreign languages with all sonority and pensive longings for mother tongues everywhere, the cricket series couldn't have come about at a better time!. 

All roads led to the stadium and franchised television channels went aglow and voluble over flood-lighted proceedings as passionate cricket lovers of Bangladesh with enhanced cricketing appetite converged to savousr the match between Bangladesh and India. 

India had never lost a T-20 encounter against Bangladesh and its captain Mahendra Dhoni likes to say that the team is on an auto-pilot mode since the IPL series. Yet by all accounts India considered Bangladesh as a serious contender after her home series wins against India, South Africa and Pakistan in the ODIs last year. Bangladesh has rammed up preparedness through rigorous training sessions and the flexibility attained in terms of choice of the team induced an extra bit of confidence among the organisers.

Harsha Bhogle, the almost ubiquitous  Indian cricket commentator said that the 'match turned out to be one-sided'. One would have thought that his emphasis is on the phrase 'turned out' rather than its being a 'one-sided' affair. It is a typical half-full and half-empty glass scenario. 

In point of fact the performance of both teams up to ten overs were comparable in terms of wicket-to-run ratio; in fact, it was somewhat titling towards Bangladesh at the half way stage.

It was a well-fought contest for the fifty percent of the game while in the decider fifty percent the match slipped from the Bangladeshi hands with luck helping India. The turning point of the match clearly swerving towards India came when Rohit Sharma at 21 was dropped by Shakib Al Hasan at the point. It was a regulation catch that a cricketer of Shakib's standing seldom misses. Buoyed up by that sheer stroke of luck, the Indian batsman went on to score 83 quick fire runs and built effective partnerships with Yuvraj and Pandya taking India to a fighting total. 

Our team management, captain and the people are maturing rapidly in terms of coping with victories and defeats. While this misfortune no doubt had the jaws of the Bangladeshis drop, captain Mashrafe came forward to give traction to Shakib Al Hasan's morale saying that catches can be missed and that when a team is defeated an obvious lapse gets pointed at. At the same time, the high point of the emotional attachment to the home side is: whether in victory or defeat the people keep faith with their team. 

The skipper who has steered the team to a string of successes with laudable consistency made a very pertinent point though. He said confidently that the target of 167 was gettable. The failure of the top order batsmen is highlighted thereby in no unmistakable terms.

Importantly, the absence of Tamim from the team, especially as an opener, apparently for insuperable personal reasons disadvantaged a team which had to have a good start against a contender of India's standing. 

Mashrafe also batted for our wonder bowler Mustafiz arguing that dripping dew didn't allow the bowler the kind of grip of the ball that was key to a full flourish of his repertoire. 

Clearly, an especially gifted bowler like Mustafiz will be subject to decoding and dissecting and even punishing batting to dilute his prowess. But surely he is working to hone his skills to measure up to a wily batsman to sneak through his defenses. One remembers how Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne's legendary spins were once blunted by a devastating batting spell by Sachin Tendulkar. 

The bottom line is: Bangladesh must fight to win the remaining three encounters with UAE, Sri Lanka and Pakistan to be in the reckoning for the Asia Cup. 

The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.