Shakib: No regret as it won’t go with me to grave

He scored 29, 10, seven, 23 and 19 runs in his last five ODIs and was also below par with the ball as questions started to appear over whether the world's premier all-rounder across all three formats was in decline. Pressure was mounting on Shakib al Hasan with each passing day but the superman was about to bring out the best from his bag when it mattered the most. Bangladesh were reeling on 33 for the loss of four wickets chasing 266 against New Zealand in a do-or-die encounter at Sophia Gardens on Friday. The Tigers were bidding to remain in the hunt for a semi-final spot in the 2017 Champions Trophy and oh boy did he deliver in some style. The 30-year old never looked tensed, worried or even bothered regardless of the situation of the game, which is perhaps Shakib's biggest strength. And he exactly banked on those features when the going got tough. Shakib paired up with Mahmudullah and started to rebuild the initial damage. At that point, the Tigers supporters were slowly losing hope but they still had the belief, thanks to the presence of these two in the middle. From rebuilding the early damage to attacking the opponent and keeping the required run-rate well within reach, that too against some quality fast bowling, was a daunting task for Shakib, which however, he made look extremely simple. “All I was thinking of was to bat as long as I can as there were a lot of overs left. We didn't get the opportunity to bat for such a long time in recent times. So my plan was to bat as long as I could and when [Mahmudullah] Riyad bhai came and batted freely, it released the pressure off me and the way he batted was brilliant,” said Shakib when queried to share his thoughts after he arrived to crease with Bangladesh reeling on 12/3 before it soon turned 33/4. “When we crossed the partnership over 100 runs, and we saw we still had 20-22 overs remaining and required 140-odd runs then we started to believe that it's possible to chase the target. We play a lot of T20Is so we know the asking rate of seven runs per over is not difficult. But it was important for us to bat till 45 overs, which we eventually did,” he added. Slowly albeit steadily, Shakib, along with Mahmudullah, started to take the game away from the Kiwis. Even the New Zealand players started to sense that something wrong is going to happen but remained clueless as the champion cricketer did not give a single chance to take his wicket. There were no celebrations when he reached his fifty, and not even when he scored his seventh hundred, as he was more interested in finishing the game rather than going for a fancy celebration to mum his critics, which truly reflects the character of a great champion. “Century was my personal achievement but it was important for me to win the match for my team and Tamim [Iqbal] always says I am never able to finish a game so I was determined that I have to finish the match. But unfortunately, it didn’t happen. May be it will happen in some other match, let's see,” said Shakib. “But obviously, it feels good to finish the game in any situation. I think that ball was there to be hit but I was also thinking that if I smash that, may be Riyad bhai will not be able to score his hundred so I tried to take a single. If I was in the mood to hit that for a boundary, may be it would have been different,” he explained, with his usual carefree style. Perhaps it would have been similar to perfect ending of a blockbuster movie if Shakib had finished the game and returned to the dressing room unbeaten. But it didn’t happen as he was finally dismissed after scoring a scintillating 114 off 115 balls, featuring 11 fours and a six, as the Tigers were just nine runs shy from the famous win. And when asked whether he had any regret for not finishing the game, Shakib, remaining ever so true to himself, said, “No regret, as it won’t go with me to the grave.” He sported a broad smile before walking away.