Bangladesh would be pleased to have contained England to 156 for six in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram today.
Taiwanese rescue teams were trying Tuesday to retrieve the body of a dead hiker who became famous on social media for taking selfies on top of mountain peaks dressed in a bikini.
Bangladesh's tour of UAE was a largely successful one as the Tigers made it to the final of the 2018 Asia Cup despite numerous setbacks. However, for Bangladeshi reporters covering the event, it was an altogether different experience as they were often faced with harsh treatment from the ones organising media matters.
While the Tigers were battling it out for a much-awaited trophy against India in the final of the Asia Cup, their most assured batsman, Tamim Iqbal, was receiving treatment on his right hand's injured index finger knuckle from a doctor in England.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza had boldly stated prior the Asia Cup final against India that he was not so cheap that he would judge himself by a trophy.
Liton Das has been one of the more maligned junior national cricketers in Bangladesh, because the perception is that he was wasting his considerable talent with the bat.
Rubel Hossain is known for blowing hot and cold in a career spanning over a decade. Prone to err in the death overs, the right-arm pacer
There has been a lot of debate on social media and elsewhere regarding Liton Das's stumping by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Friday's Asia
There was only one thing that Bangladesh had wanted leading up to the final – top-order runs. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza took the highly irregular decision to open the batting with Mehedi Hasan Miraz and Liton Das, and the unlikely duo delivered with a 120-run opening stand after five matches where Bangladesh’s highest opening stand was 16.
Bangladesh Test and T20I captain Shakib Al Hasan is currently lying with his left arm in a sling in Apollo Hospital. By the time he had come back from the Asia Cup in the UAE on Wednesday, unable to even grip a bat after batting and bowling in four games, his left little finger had swollen to twice its size.
The target was just 223 for the vaunted Indian batting that has struck fear in the hearts of bowling line-ups the world over, but that it took them till the last ball of the 50th over to complete a three-wicket win in the Asia Cup final spoke volumes of the heart Bangladesh have shown throughout the tournament.
Unless you had your head buried in the Arabian Desert, you already knew who the big draws in the Asia Cup were. India bring in the big money with their advertisers and broadcast deals, and the Asian Cricket Council seemed to have designed the Asia Cup around the top-ranked ODI side's schedule and needs.
Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar typify the young Bangladesh batsman -- full of talent, but often prone to throwing away good starts. Yesterday in the Asia Cup, in different ways, they batted against type and took on responsibility -- Liton with a fabulous 121 and Soumya with a rearguard of 33 -- but it was the much-feted senior batsmen who seemed to have taken on the unwanted attributes of the much-maligned juniors.
Bangladesh go into the final against India without their two most important players in Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal – both having to leave the Asia Cup tournament due to injuries. However, the Tigers will be buoyed by the fact that they made the final despite losing Tamim after the very first game and also defeating Pakistan in a virtual semifinal without the world’s best all-rounder Shakib.
In a long and outstanding career as a fast bowler and the coveted captain of the national team, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has come close to winning a major tournament trophy but did not quite get his hands on a trophy even as the Tigers have won bilateral series home and abroad. The Tigers are once again faced with an opportunity to win a major trophy as they face India in the final of the Asia Cup.
Bangladesh will go into today's Asia Cup final against India with some jarring memories from their previous appearances. The Tigers have come leaps and bounds from that gut-wrenching loss to Pakistan in 2012 and were never really expected to win in 2016, a T20 affair.
India have been far and away the best team in the ongoing Asia Cup. There may have been a lot of disgruntled noises from other teams -- including Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza -- hinting at the preferential schedule the world's number one ODI side have been handed, but there is an argument to be made that even the worst of schedules would not have altered the results much.
It is a twist of fate that two different Asia Cups have been witness to two stages in Bangladesh's evolution. Along with evolution, of course, comes growth amid turmoil and Bangladesh have had much of both in the 2012 tournament and the ongoing one in the UAE where they will contest for the trophy against overwhelming favourites India.
