There was a lot of focus on Bangladesh pace bowler
Mustafizur Rahman ahead of the Asia Cup opener against India at the
Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. However, the young
pacer had an off day, conceding 40 runs in his four overs. PHOTO: FIROZ
AHMED And every now and then there was the slower cutter that danced off the pitch. A restless Kohli tried his best to attack the left-arm pacer in the fourth over but failed to make an impact.
While Kohli struggled, his partner Rohit Sharma played him almost perfectly.
In Mustafizur's second over, Rohit stepped back and played him as late as possible. He moved away from the stumps frequently, almost as though he was expecting the cutter and played him once through third man and then behind point for two singles.
By the time Mustafizur had arrived to bowl his third over, the batsman had already shifted to another gear. He applied the same strategy -- took a step back and moved away from the wicket -- but this time instead of driving it for a single he flicked and cut the deliveries as hard as possible. One of his flicks went all the way for a six.
His partner, Hardik Pandya seemed to take a leaf out of Rohit's book and played with a wide stance and got rewarded with a four and two sixes.
Mustafizur, to his credit, did comeback well in his last over and gave away just seven runs.
However, by then the damage had already been done. With figures of 0 for 40 he recorded his worst economy rate so far.
Prior to the match, the main talking point was whether the Indians had decoded Mustafizur. While it's too early to answer that question, the one thing that is certain is that a number of these Indian batsmen had done their homework well.
Make no mistake, the kind of resilience the left-armer has shown in the past, he will likely be able to come back in the games ahead.
After the match skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza pointed out that the wicket was wet and as a result Mustafizur's deliveries didn't manage to get much grip off it, which caused him some discomfort.
However, it is undeniable that his career has entered a period where every batsman he bowls against will try to make it doubly hard for him and that's a challenge he will have to overcome in the rest of the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20.
This of course isn't a surprise. With the kind of attention that he has received, this was something that was bound to happen; yesterday's game was just a soft reminder
