When the history was against them, Bangladesh showed their cricket’s upward spiral by chasing down Zimbabwe’s 163 to make a winning start to 2016. Before the match, Bangladesh won just one match chasing 160 plus scores and that too came in 2007 against West Indies. Before the match, Bangladesh’s highest chase against Zimbabwe was 131. So a tension-filled situation was created.
 Bangladesh didn’t let them to be panic-stricken. The batsmen remained cool throughout the chase even though the wickets were falling down. Shakib Al Hasan finished the match calmly while debutant Nurul Hasan Sohan was serene under tremendous pressure.
It seemed there is always something up in sleeves of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. In every match he came up with new strategy which somehow worked well. In this match, his decision to send Shakib Al Hasan at No. 6 came up as a masterstroke. Given the situation, an experienced batsman like Shakib who knew well how to clear the boundary, was essential.
“It’s nice to see that we weren’t panicked. Everybody was relaxed and played their part well,” said Mashrafe after the match.
“It’s right that we weren’t up to the mark. We lost too many wickets. We could have finished the game in 17 or 18 overs had we not lost the wickets at the start, and then Mushfiqur and Sabbir in quick succession but Shakib played his part nicely. He played such way what we expected from a senior player like him. In that crucial and tricky situation, we needed a batsman like Shakib. He delivered it well.”
“A batsman like Shakib always bats at the top because he is the most successful batsman of us in this format. So it’s a gamble to send him in No. 6 position. But he was sent in this position for the sake of the team.”
Shuvagata Hom was drafted into the final XI as a bowling all-rounder but it was surprising that Mashrafe didn’t give him a chance to bowl. Shuvagata was sent in batting in No. 4 position but he failed to deliver, making just six on his T20 debut.
Mashrafe said he kept faith on Mahmudullah’s bowling ability. “He was taken as bowling all-rounder, not batting all-rounder but I kept faith on Mahmudullah’s bowling ability. I may give him the ball but at the end, it wasn’t required.
The captain however praised his pace bowlers who displayed an outstanding bowling effort in death overs to chock the Zimbabwe batting line up.
“Al-Amin was always our best bowler in T20 before his bowling action was remodeled. He was outstanding in this match while Mustafizur was as usual unplayable. They stemmed the run flow and took wickets at the death which helped us to bounce back.”
He also hailed the young wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan Sohan who held his nerve under tremendous pressure and also did reasonable well behind the wicket.
‘It wasn’t easy decision to give him gloves instead of Mushfiqur Rahim who has been playing as wicket-keeper batsman for the last eight or nine years. But Nurul showed his caliber though it’s not right to judge one players with just one game. He was fantastic behind the wicket and played calmly under the pressure. When Shakib was in the strike, he needed to rotate just and that he did nicely.”