Pace sensation Mustafizur Rahman had a day to remember yesterday as he became the first Bangladesh bowler to bag five wickets in the World Twenty20.
The left-arm paceman dismissed five Kiwi batsmen at Eden Gardens in Kolkata to allow the Tigers restrict the opposition to 145/8 from their stipulated 20 overs.
Mustafizur notched his maiden five-wicket haul in his 13th appearance in the shortest format of the game, taking his tally to a commendable 22 wickets.
The cutter specialist though narrowly missed out on registering the best ever bowling figure by a Bangladesh bowler in T20Is. That accolade still belongs to left-arm spinner Elias Sunny, who conceded 13 runs, nine less than Mustafizur, for his five wickets against Ireland in 2012.
The wicket at Eden Gardens yesterday was ideal for the spinners as the Kiwis decided to play three slow bowlers in their playing XI – Ish Sodhi, Nathan McCullum and Mitchell Santner.
The Tigers lost the toss and were asked to bowl first and it was expected that spinners in the shape of Shakib al Hasan, Mahmudullah and Shuvagata Hom would extract the maximum purchase from the wicket.
However, it was Mustafizur instead who ruled the roost.
The wicket turned out to be the stuff of dreams for the southpaw. Most of the deliveries were gripping, taking a lot of time to reach the batsmen and the Bangladesh wonder-boy ensured of availing the maximum advantage from the wicket. His cutters, slower deliveries and variation of speed troubled the Kiwi batsmen throughout his quota of four overs.
Mustafizur struck the timber as many as four times as the digital scoreboard repeatedly showed the message “You miss, I hit” and every time he came on to bowl, he picked up at least one wicket.
One by one, Henry Nicholls, Kane Williamson, Grant Elliott, Santner and McCullum made their way to the dressing room in the face of some devastating bowling by Mustafizur. The Kiwis never really settled down from thereon in as only three batsmen reached double figures.
Following yesterday’s clash, Tigers head coach Chandika Hathurusingha heaped praise on the Satkhira lad, saying, “Mustafizur is an intelligent cricketer despite not being that experienced. He has some variations which others don’t. He is using those variations very well. He was brilliant [yesterday] and the wicket was ideal [for] him. You should see his performance against India and the way he had kept [MS] Dhoni under control. Dhoni has played against him many matches in the last six-seven months but it hardly mattered. Mustafizur used yorkers, quickers, cutters to make it an unplayable combination. This shows how intelligent a bowler Mustafizur is.”
