World Cup: The surprising rise of Bangladesh and Mahmudullah

New Zealand’s win over Bangladesh was one of the best matches of the World Cup so far, and it was set up by unlikely source - a brilliant hundred from Mohammad Mahmudullah, his second in as many matches. New Zealand were challenged for the first time in the tournament, and while they ran out winners, no side has asked them as many questions as Bangladesh. At the start of this tournament the assumption was that Bangladesh would be the whipping boys for the other Full Members and would suffer an ignominious exit in the group stages. And had they lost to England, they would have been all but eliminated from the World Cup. While all pre-match chatter was about the pressure on England, there have been mutterings for years about Bangladesh’s right to have a seat at the main ICC table. Defeat to England and a thrashing from New Zealand would have made those complaints all the louder. [caption id=“attachment_2152507” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mahmuddullah celebrates his hundred against New Zealand. Getty[/caption] Failure to reach the knockout stages would also have been yet another bitter disappointment for the Bangladesh team and their passionate fans. It was against this back drop that Mahmudullah walked out to bat against England with his team 8 for 2. It could have been yet another example of Bangladesh failing to seize the moment. Instead Mahmudullah scored his country’s first ever World Cup hundred to set up a winning total and send England home. It was an innings of maturity and class. His innings strike rate hovered around 75, but it wasn’t flashy strokes that Bangladesh needed, it was a solid foundation on which to build a victory. That it was Mahmudullah that provided that base was surprising. In recent times it has been Shakib-al-Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim that have been the stars. Mahmudullah’s ODI average has hovered between the late twenties and early thirties for the majority of his 115 match career. Before that hundred against England, he had just one international ton, made in a Test match against New Zealand in 2010. That Test hundred was scored while batting at number eight, and while he had been picked as an all-rounder, it is his bowling that was seen as his stronger suit. Even after than Test century, Mahmudullah was still batting at eight or nine in Tests. It wasn’t until 2014 that he became a regular in the Bangladesh top six in either Tests or ODIs. He got a few games batting up the order only to find himself dropping back down again a few matches later. With a quarter final in the bag, Bangladesh faced hot tournament favourites New Zealand, who have been phenomenal with the ball in this tournament. The average score the Kiwis had conceded in the tournament was 167. They have bowled out England, Australia, Scotland and Afghanistan for under well under 200, with only Sri Lanka passing that mark. No side had batted the full 50 overs against them. It would have been a brave punter that put money on Bangladesh breaching 200 when they lost the toss and were put in to bat. A lively pitch and swinging conditions have been anathema to Bangladesh in the past. But form is a wonderful thing and Mahmuddullah has managed to find it in recent months. He continued that here with a second consecutive hundred - in this last seven ODI innings he now has two tons and three fifties. The hundred against New Zealand is the one that gets the pulses racing, though. New Zealand’s bowling line up has been cutting swathes through opponents like a threshing machine at a wheat harvest. Once again Mahmudullah came to the crease after both openers had failed. This time, he had help. Corey Anderson dropped a sharp chance at second slip when he was on just one. Mahmudullah got himself going with 16 runs off a Trent Boult over, including three boundaries, and didn’t look back. At the start of the 40th over, he was undefeated on 75 and Bangladesh were 184 for 5. In combination with Sabbir Rahman, he helped Bangladesh score 104 runs in the last 10 overs to set up a challenging target of 289. Mahmudullah played with controlled aggression. His batting is not flashy or complicated. It is doubtful that any of his innings will get millions of YouTube views in the years to come, but runs are runs. It was far from straight forward for New Zealand, and the reason for that was it isn’t only Mahmudullah that has found his feet at this World Cup. Rubel Hossain has bowled with pace and aggression. Taskin Ahmed has been as exciting as any young quick at this event. For the first time since the early days of their admittance to the Full Member club, Bangladesh are turning heads. New Zealand won, and they did it with seven balls to spare, but this was a perfect confidence boosting performance for Bangladesh ahead of their quarter final against India on 19 March. They will go into that game as second favourites by a distance, but they have shown that they are capable of pushing the tournament favourites close. If Mahmudullah can make it three straight hundreds, you never know …