Inventiveness, improvisation and thinking made all the difference in the lone T20 match of New Zealand’s tour of Bangladesh as the visitors claimed their first victory in the country at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.
At the post-match press conference, skipper Mushfiqur Rahim admitted Bangladesh lacked fine tuning in the shortest version of the game. “T20 format is not just slamming and banging, there are some chemistry and we are short of that. Our approach was very good - after being restricted to 20/3, I don’t think many teams would finish on 189. We will look over the areas and take the steps to acquire what is required,” he said.
The shortcomings in planning were evident on the field. New Zealand’s opener Anton Devcich and the hard hitting Colin Munro were able to find gaps in the field at will and in particular, targeted the mid-wicket region with great effectiveness. During the power play, they took advantage of the fielding restrictions with a mixture of nudges and pushes, along with the occasional big hit in clinical fashion.
One shot in particular from Colin Munro demonstrated the kind of skill required in the shortest format of the game. As Mahmudullah delivered a standard delivery on off-stump to start the 13th over, the left handed batsman turned himself around and unleashed a vicious switch hit over extra cover for six.
Munro showed other touches of being in touch with the needs of the game. Most batsmen would have left the ball Mashrafee bin Mortaza sent well down the leg side knowing it would be called a wide, but Munro, aware of the field, stretched to his limit to flick the ball down to the vacant fine leg boundary for four.
New Zealand’s bowlers also showed what it takes to be successful in T20s. Tim Southee and Kyle Mills changed their pace, used yorkers and a line wide of off-stump to make scoring quickly difficult for Bangladesh’s batsmen. Variety as opposed to predictability is the key to pressuring the batsman in T20s, as the Kiwis ably demonstrated.
By contrast, Bangladesh openers Shamsur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman tried to be too aggressive and Mominul Haque also lost his cool, showing an inability to read the needs of the situation. Nonetheless, Mushfiq and comeback man Naeem Islam stilled the trembling ship and Bangladesh remained very much in the game till the last over.
Coach Shane Jurgensen also pointed out the Tigers’ shortcomings. “We don’t often play international T20s. More playing is more learning, with the T20 World Cup ahead we have to work hard to fine tune the performances. The attitude and the approach today was alright but we have add something more to win,” he said.
