A scintillating performance from pacer Robiul Islam saw him getting rewarded with a milestone that no Bangladeshi reached. He became the first from his country to achieve five wickets or more in consecutive innings.
Fast bowlers are a fading light in Bangladesh and Robiul stepped in at just the right time to set himself as an example. Hungry for wickets, the 25-year-old bowled 33 overs, one third of the Zimbabwean innings, and still looked upbeat – a rare behaviour from pacers.
Earlier in the first Test at the same venue, Robiul bowled 38 overs in the first innings and followed it by another 16 in the second innings.
“When out in the field, I think only of taking down the opposition, no matter how many overs I bowl. I will bowl 50 overs if needed,” said Robiul after close of yesterday’s play.
Bangladesh fielding coach Corey Richards praised the quickie for his brilliant show and also highlighted the experience and maturity shown by Shakib al Hasan and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim.
Richard was happy with the lead the Tigers have now, but also admitted that they had a rough day.
“In an ideal world it is not great for one of the strike bowlers to bowl lots and lots of over, but, under the circumstances, for whatever reason we needed him (Robiul) to and he has done it really well. He is not going to have cricket for a while after the fourth innings so we will manage him time to recover,” said Richards.
“We are in pretty good position going into the last couple of days of the game. It hasn’t been smooth sailing today (yesterday) but fortunately, bit of experience shown by Shakib and Mushi (Mushfiqur Rahim) was a pretty important punch for us. With five for 272 on the board, we are happy with it,” said the former Australian cricketer.
