World Cup 2015: In the end, Bangladesh just couldn't handle the pressure

Bangladesh had stormed in to the quarterfinal stage of the Cricket World Cup 2015, with one game in hand, on the back of their bowlers derailing a promising England response. Led by the experienced Mashrafe Mortaza, and the young guns, Rubel Hossain and Taskin Ahmed, Bangladesh had something new in this tournament that they haven’t really enjoyed before – a potent pace attack. Of course, they have the perennially reliable left arm spin of Shakib Al Hasan. At the “cricket coliseum” that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Bangladesh needed their bowlers to step up to challenge of the reigning World Cup champions, and Asian neighborhood’s big brother, India. For a while, Bangladesh bowlers had the ball on a string and India in knots. In the first ever appearance in a quarterfinal of a world cup, Bangladesh had visions of a Sydney semifinal. For a while. But then, the wheels came off. In the first 35 overs of India’s batting innings, the immaculate discipline of the Bangladeshi seamers with line and length kept the much vaunted batting line-up quiet. The score had only inched to 155-3 at the end of 35 overs. Even as India safely negotiated the first powerplay, Shakib teased Shikhar Dhawan out of his crease and Hossain suckered Virat Kohli into a fatal drive, and Ajinkya Rahane fell while trying to break the Bangla shackles. The young fast bowlers showed plenty of pace, control and not to forget, aggression while calming the mostly pro-Indian 55,000 crowd. Hossain celebrated wildly as he ensnared Kohli, and let him know about it too. Perhaps it was going to be a repeat of 2007 when Bangladesh put paid to India’s hopes of progress in the world cup. [caption id=“attachment_2164155” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bangladesh’s Imrul Kayes lies on the ground after he was run out. AP[/caption] With only Rohit Sharma showing the ability to time the ball on a pitch where “there was bit of variable pace and a bit of bounce”, India were stuck in a mire. At one point, India had not hit a boundary for 11 overs! Mortaza talked simple basics of denying the opposition singles and forcing them to take risks to manufacture their runs. “I think our plan was to stop singles. Yes, they can hit three, four or six, but our plan was to stop singles, and I think our plan was pretty good.” It worked well. For a while. For 35 overs. He would have dearly liked to take another wicket or two before India went in to powerplay but it wasn’t to be. “We are a bit unlucky that we couldn’t get a wicket at that time”, said Mortaza, “If we could get one wicket at that time it would have been much better for us.” But the arrival of Suresh Raina and the batting Powerplay in the 36th over changed the fortunes of both the teams. Mortaza identified that to be the turning point in the match. “We always knew that they’ll come hard after 35 [overs]. They have been brilliant after 35. They take the calculated risk, and they’ve had success. We couldn’t bowl to our plans, and that was the moment [the match shifted towards India].” Till that moment, Dhoni said that he was going to settle for a score of “260 runs”, but once the discipline and accuracy the Bangla seamers had shown earlier wilted under the pressure of a powerplay and the onslaught by Rohit and Raina, Dhoni kept “revising the target” which eventually ended up on the right side of 300 for India. Not so right for Bangladesh. The bowling indiscipline was followed by very ordinary efforts in the field, with dropped catches, misfields, overthrows, extras, and an angry captain yelling at his players as he watched the castle he so carefully constructed for 35 overs being washed away. India helped themselves with every Bangladeshi error in the field, and accumulated 150 runs in the last 15 overs, 50 of those runs coming in the batting powerplay. The bowling figures that looked parsimonious, began to balloon and with it the hopes of a remarkable, historic Bangladeshi floated away. The 35-over mark represented the inflection point in the form and fortunes of Bangladesh. Till then, they looked to be world beaters. As India weathered the storm and reversed the pressure, the lack of experience in handling the big moments got to Bangladesh. Given an opportunity, Indian batsmen severely punished the erring bowlers and knocked the wind out of Bangladeshi sails. To win a crunch game in a world cup, teams cannot afford to even take their eyes off the ball for a moment, and Bangladesh went missing for an entire stretch of 15 overs. A team like India, experienced in pushing oppositions to the brink to see if they will break, did just that, and Bangladesh snapped. Bangladesh can be very proud of their achievement in this world cup but they will rue losing a golden opportunity even more. For a long while.