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National men's Cricket round the year

Published : Wednesday, 28 December, 2016 at 12:00 AM  Count : 440
Rashedul Islam Ratul
If we look back to the year 2016 of Bangladesh National Men's Cricket, it was not as much eventful as the year 2015. But still there were some precious moments that made the Tigers' fans proud once again.
The most prestigious part of the year was the 108 runs' Test victory over the 'mighty' England within three days in October while the one run defeat against India in World T20 was the most heartbreaking.
Mustafizur Rahman was the greatest finding of 2015 while 2016 conferred a new sensation Mehedi Hasan Miraz who made a heroic start in the Test series against England.
Following the overwhelming success in 2015, Bangladesh starter the year 2016 with four-match T20I series against Zimbabwe at home and will end the year with the away ODI series against New Zealand.
In this year, Bangladesh played seven ODIs, two Tests and 16 T20Is and they won three ODIs, one Tests and seven T20Is till date.Apart from those win-loss equation, there were also some other moments which will stick into the fan's mind for long.

Four-match T20 series
against Zimbabwe
The year started with the four matches T20I series against Zimbabwe at home. All the matches were played at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium, Khulna. In the first ODI on January 15, Zimbabwe won the toss and opted to bat first. Riding won the 79 runs' innings of Masakadza the tourist scored 163 runs for seven. The Tigers toppled the target losing four wickets with eight balls to spare capitalising Sabbir's 46 runs.
In the second match, opting to bat first Sabbir and Soumya led the Tigers scoring 43 runs each to post a total of 167 runs for three wickets. After that Sabbir took three wickets while Mustafiz bagged two that enabled the host to seal a 42 runs victory.
But in the last two matches, Zimbabwe bounced back strongly and won both the matches by 31 and 18 runs to level the series.

Reaching the final of the
Asia Cup T20
Following the 2-2 series draw against Zimbabwe, Tigers got into the Asia Cup T20I 2016 in February. In the first match Tigers faced India and lost the match by 45 runs chasing the target of 167 runs. In the next match, United Arab Emirates was the opponent. Sent to bat first Tigers scored 133 runs and sealed 51 runs victory. This was the first time Bangladesh have dismissed a side in the second innings of a T20I.
The glorious part of the tournament was sealing the final berth beating Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In their third match, Tigers sealed an amazing 23 runs victory over the Lions. Sabbir Rahman led the Tigers with the bat scoring 80 runs to post a total of 147 runs. Then Al-Amin took three wickets to restrict the Lions for 124 runs.
Tigers then rout Pakistan to pave the way of final. Al-Amin continued the performance of the Sri Lanka match in this match as well and hauled three wickets to restrict Pakistan for 129 runs. Chasing the target, Soumya shone with the bat and scored 48 to seal the win by five wickets.
It was the second Asia Cup final for the Tigers as they first time faced Pakistan in 2012. The final was curtailed down to 15 overs per side due to rain. Batting first, Mahmudullah's late storm (33 off 13) enabled Tigers to pile a total of 120 runs for five wickets.  But Virat Kohli led India to clinch the title winning the match by eight wickets and Tigers tasted their second runners-up trophy.

World T20 2016
Probably Bangladesh faced the most heartbreaking defeat in their cricketing history in the World T20. They lost a super-ten match to India by only one run. However, Tigers had to play the qualifier to play the super ten. In the qualifier, they beat Netherland by eight runs with Tamim Iqbal made unbeaten 83. The next match was against Ireland but the match was abandoned due to rain after eight overs. In their third qualifier match, Tamim hit the first ever T20I ton (103 runs) as Bangladeshi batter and beat Oman by 54 runs by D/L method.
Tigers moved to super-ten comfortably but they lost all the matches in the super ten against Pakistan, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Among them, the defeat against India was most shocking. Bangladesh were chasing 147 runs for victory. They needed 11 runs off the last over bowled by seamer Hardik Pandya with Mushfiq and Mahmudullah at the crease. Mushfiqur Rahim made the perfect start smashing two early fours. But they then lost three wickets in the final three deliveries needing only two runs.
After the defeat skipper Mashrafe said, "We were on top till the last three balls, we could have taken singles. But anyways, bad luck. In the last three balls, we lost three wickets, we needed only two runs off three balls. Especially today it is really disappointing."

Three-match ODI series
against Afghanistan
Tigers played their first ODI series in September with Afghanistan. Tigers won the series by 2-1. In the first match Bangladesh won by seven runs with Tamim scored 80 runs and Taskin hauled four wickets. In the second match Afghanistan bounced back and beat the Tigers by two wickets and in the final match Bangladesh rout the tourist by huge 141 runs with Tamim hit a ton.
 
Three-match ODI series
against England
England came to Bangladesh overcoming all the security concerns during the Afghanistan series to play three One-Day Internationals (ODIs), two Test matches. England won the ODI series 2-1. The Test series finished 1-1, with Bangladesh recording their first ever Test win against England when they won the second Test by 108 runs.
In the ODI series, though Imrul hit a brilliant ton Bangladesh lost the first one by 21 runs which they should win. In the second match Mashrafe led the Tigers with both bat and ball (44 runs and four wickets) to seal a 34 runs win. But England won the last match by four wickets to seal the series.

Historic win over England
The Test series may be was the best Test series of the history of Bangladesh. Bangladesh lost the first one by the narrowest margin of 22 runs. In the first innings, Mehedi Hasan Miraz hauled six wickets in his debut to pack England for 293 runs. But Bangladesh could make 248 runs in the first innings and England took a 285 runs lead after the second innings as Shakib hauled five wickets to book them for 240 runs. Tigers fought hard as Sabbir led the team till the end making unbeaten 64 runs. But the ferocious bowling of Ben Stokes handed over a 22 runs defeat to the Tigers.
In the second Test, Miraz shone again and took 12 wickets in that match to enable Tigers to taste the historic 108 runs win over England on the third day of the Test.

Taskin and Sunny was banned for illegal bowling action and return
The most shocking news for the Tigers was the bans of Taskin and Arafat Sunny for illegal bowling action during the ICC World T20 2016 in March.
Arafat and Taskin were reported after their opening match in the ICC World Twenty20 against the Netherlands in Dharamsala, India on March 9.
Then their independent assessments were performed at the ICC-accredited testing centre in Chennai. Arafat's bowling action was analysed on March12, while Taskin's test was performed on March 15. Then on March 19 the International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended both of them from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect.
The news shocked all the players and they became very much disappoint and even Mashrafe cried for Taskin after a press conference during the World T20.
After that both of them worked very hard to correct their actions. Their re-assessments were carried out at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane on 8 September. And it was revealed that the amount of elbow extension in all of Arafat and Taskin's deliveries were now within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC regulations.
Following the assessments on September 23, 2016, ICC announced that following remedial work and re-assessments, the bowling actions of Bangladesh's Arafat Sunny and Taskin Ahmed have been found to be legal, and both bowlers are free to bowl in international cricket with immediate effect.

Injury and return of Mustafiz
Another shocking news for the Tigers was the shoulder injury of Mustafiz that ruled him out of the filed for about six months. After playing the world T20 Mustafiz played in IPL and then went to play the English County Cricket for Sussex. But he could play only two matches and then he suffered the shoulder injury.
Mustafizur had a SLAP tear (an injury to the labrum, which is the cartilage around the socket of the shoulder joint) in his left shoulder. And his surgery on shoulder had been done successfully by Andrew Wallace at Bupa Cromwell Hospital in London, United Kingdom on August 11.
After a rehabilitation process of five months Mustafiz back to cricket with the first ODI of New Zealand series on December 26 where he took two wickets. Mustafiz also achieved the ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2016 award for his brilliant performance.

Rising of Miraz
The rising of Mehedi Hasan Miraz is like the Latin phrase Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came; I saw; I conquered). He did brilliant in the age level cricket and led the U-19 National Team in the last U-19 World Cup in 2016 in Bangladesh. He led the team from the front with both the bat and bowl and was named as the man of the tournament. Under his leadership Junior Tigers sealed the semi-final berth of the U-19 World Cup for the first time.
The leadership and performance of Miraz is considered widely as the combination of Mashrafe and Shakib. He is also vastly praised for his ability of taking pressure and maturity.
He got the reward of his consistence performance soon. He had been called up in the national team for England series. And in his debut match he hauled seven wickets in first Test in Chittagong to ink his name in the record book. He continued his magic in the second Test as well and hauled 12 wickets to lead the Tigers to book a historic 108 runs' victory against England. He was adjudged as the man of the match and series as well. He hauled total 19 wickets in the two-match series.
However, now Bangladesh are playing the three-match ODI series against New Zealand. They already played the first ODI on the Boxing Day at Hagley Oval, Christchurch and lost the match by 77 runs. The next two matches of the series will be played on December 29 and 31 respectively.






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