gloomy Nasir Hussain and a pensive Shakib Al Hasan. Emotions ran high
and the Sher-e- Bangla stadium was engulfed in it. Never had they
played such a high profile game; for the first time, odds were not
stacked against them and they played, played not like underdogs but as
heavyweights at par with their opposition, Pakistan. Stats generally
hide more than what they reveal, but here, the 2-run loss did not hide
anything, it only revealed character, the character of a bunch of
youngsters talented cricketers.
Bangladesh came agonizing close to a historic win as Pakistan scraped
past the spirited Bangladesh tigers by2-runs to win the Asia Cup 2012.
It was to be historic day for Bangladesh, but even without a win, the
day would be remembered in cricketing history as one of the best Asia
Cup finale. Chasing a target of 237, Bangladesh finished at 234/8.The
tournament itself was consequential as Bangladesh had defeated World
Cup 2011 finalists, India and Sri Lanka en route to the finals.
Tamim Iqbal had led the charge as he had been doingall along the
tournament, but his partner Nazimuddin showed signs of nervousness.
Generally an attacking player, he was overwhelmed by the occasion.
Tamim, with a form of a lifetime to bank upon had raced to 25 off just
27 balls while Nazimuddin crawled to 8 off 33. By the time Nazimuddin
perished after his patience vigil of 16 from 52 balls, Tamim had
reached his fourth consecutive half century. Jahurul Islam walkedin
and walked back without troubling the scorers.
By the 20th over Bangladeshneeded 5.56 runs per over to deal with the
chase , and that was the time the trio of dangerous Saeed Ajmal, wily
Afridi and the miserly Mohammed Hafeez gradually took control of the
game. Between them, the tweaker conceded just 98 runs off 30overs
picking up three wickets.
Nasir Hossain, who came in next, followed the Nazimuddin suit.He was
foxed by Ajmal's doosra, cramped for room by Hafeez and hurried on by
Afridi's quicker one. It took him 42 balls to hit his first
boundaryand his innings of 28 consumed more than 10 overs, 63 balls to
be precise. Hailed as one of the finds of Bangladesh cricket inthe
recent future, Hossain was probably the second victim of the big
occasion.
The turning point of the match though had already come by the time
Nasir settled himself. Playing confidently at 60 runs, Tamim, with the
same confidence went for a rash expansive drive on the rise only to
pick out Younis Khan at extra cover.
The momentum stalled for thehosts and from there on, thebig occasion
player for Pakistan, Saeed Ajmal, took control. Shakib walked in
andthe tweakers persisted with pressure. Bangladesh had tobreak the
shackles at some point. Shakib had done that earlier against India, he
had shifted gears during the powerplay, but here the powerplay yield
just 21 runs.As compared to Pakistan's 36, predominantly due to
Afridi's hard hitting, Shakib and Nasir had already missed the perfect
gear shift.
From there on, it became stiffer for the hosts each over. But, credit
to them thatthey did not crumble and stayed there, hanging in,
squeezing every bit of the vociferous crowds' energy. The equation
though never went out of hand. In the 47th over when Mahmudullah
cracked a boundary followed by Mortaza's stand up 'Marillier shot' for
four, they came close. Ajmal scalped Mortaza and conceded only 6runs.
But, 10 runs came off the second last over.
The equation became 9 runs off 6 balls. Aizaz Cheema hadthe ball in
his hand. He was taken to the cleaners early on, but had comeback well
with wickets of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan. And eventually,
singles of the first and second ball followed by a dot and a double
plus one run overthrow, Razzaq perished.Four run of one ball and
Shahadat Hussain failed to dug out a block hole delivery.Cheema ran
towards Misbah not much with jubilation, but with relief.Mahmudullah
took his helmet off and stared down the track as the camera panned to
a distraught Tamim Iqbal inthe dressing room.
Earlier, Bangladesh had restricted Pakistan to a chasable total of 236
courtesy miserly bowling spells by the spinners led byAbdur Razzaq
(10-3-26-2). Shakib (10-1-39-2) supported him ably. After a crawling
slow start by Hafeez(40 off 87 balls) and early breakthroughs in the
form ofNasir Jamshed (9) and Younis Khan (1), Umar Akmal (30)and
Hammad Azam (30) had consolidated the innings.Later in the powerplay,
Afrdit(32) hit some hefty blows. Sarfraz Ahmed (46) chipped in with
valuable runs in the end. Shahadat Hossain had conceded 19 runs off
the lastover, the maximum in an over in the innings which included a
front foot no-ball.
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