Asia Cup T20 A new challenge for Mustafizur

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

Naimul Karim

Mustafizur Rahman's first over yesterday was no different to the way he has fared in his short career so far. He kept pitching the ball up and kept getting it to swing away from Virat Kohli.
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 

Forex reserve touches record $28 billion

Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserve has crossed a record $ 28 billion standing on a rise in export and incoming remittances from abroad. Photo: STAR FILE

Satr Online Report

Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserve today crossed a record $ 28 billion standing on a rise in export and incoming remittances from abroad.
Kazi Sayedur Rahman, general manager forex reserve and treasury management department of the Bangladesh Bank told The Daily Star of the update.
“It is attributed to falling commodity prices, a rise in export and inflowing remittances,” he said. “Declining import bills for petroleum oil and food grain also fueled the reserve.”
The reserve of $28 billion is enough to meet the country's import bills for more eight months, according to the central bank.

Beijing overtakes New York as new 'billionaire capital'

Beijing is seen as the country's nexus of power where the elite often have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party leadership. Photo: ChinaFotoPress/BBC

BBC Online

Beijing has overtaken New York as the city with the highest number of billionaires for the first time, a new report by China-based firm Hurun says.
A total of 100 billionaires are now living in the Chinese capital, compared to 95 in New York, the report said.
Shanghai, China's centre of commerce came in fifth place.
Hurun, which tracks wealth and luxury in China, has released a Global Rich List for the past five years measuring billionaires' wealth in US dollars.
It found that Beijing had welcomed 32 new billionaires since last year, allowing it to vault past New York which it calculated only saw four new billionaires.
Overall, China has overtaken the US as the country with the most number of billionaires. However, the top 10 billionaires in Hurun's list is still dominated by Americans.
China has 568 billionaires after gaining 90 new ones, compared to the US which only has 535.
China's billionaires boast a combined net worth of $1.4 trillion, which is similar to the GDP of Australia.
Hurun's Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf noted that the growth in China's wealthy took place despite an economic slowdown and stock market instability.
He told the AP news agency that it could be due to Chinese market regulators allowing a flood of new initial public offerings after holding back new IPOs for several years.
Hurun found that the richest man in China is still Wang Jianlin, who has an estimated worth of $26bn.
But he has not cracked the top 10 billionaires in Hurun's list, which is dominated by Americans. It is topped by Bill Gates with a net worth of $80bn, followed by Warren Buffett with $68bn.
In third place is Spanish fashion tycoon Amancio Ortega with a net worth of $64bn. The report found that that there are now 2,188 billionaires in the world, a new record.