Nothing out of the ordinary

Mushfiqur Rahim’s terrific century lightened up what was a pretty dull day for Bangladesh cricket. Over the years the one noticeable aspect of their cricket is the absence of determination when the odds are stacked against them.

Mushfiqur’s fine century and the manner in which he defied everything the Indian bowlers had to bowl at him showed that there is at least one cricketer who was not going to go down without a fight.

In the first innings too he along with Mahmudullah, another fine cricketer in the making, showed admirable temperament to build a century plus partnership and took Bangladesh just one run short of India’s first innings.

Bangladesh needs more such players. Their skipper Shakib is also a very good all-rounder and it is these three who have to show the way to the others.

The vastly experienced Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful were disappointing not because they didn’t score but the manner of their dismissals in the second innings. Even if Bangladesh did not hold hopes of winning the match they should have shown the application to try and save it.

Once again the game began late on the final day and with the light fading fast every evening it was really a matter of having one big partnership that would have thwarted India.

The pitch still looked good and there was no help for the bowlers and if the Bangladeshi batsmen have an honest appraisal of their dismissals they would see that it was more their fault than anything special from the bowlers.

Yes, Zaheer and Ishant Sharma were at them all the time and did not give them any leeway but then that’s what Test cricket is about. It is about biding your time as a batsman, waiting for the bowler to tire out and then get the runs.

The exception was Mushfiqur. He showed great determination and was also looking for the chance to keep the score moving along.

He used his feet very well to go either forward or back and it looked as if he was resolving to make up for his poor dismissal in the first innings. He was the shining light in the Bangladesh team though the bowlers also did their bit in the first innings.

Before the Test there were some comments that certainly stirred up the Bangladeshi bowlers and they dismissed a strong Indian line-up for only 243 runs.

It is a pity that the batsmen let them down and Bangladesh lost in the manner that they did without a real fight barring the one from the little wicketkeeper batsman. They will need to alter their approach and attitude if they are to stretch India in the next Test. —PMG