‘Mustafiz was a magician’ – Mash hails fantastic last over

While it may seem that being the first Bangladesh player to suffer the misfortune of getting out on 99 in international cricket would disappoint a player who strives endlessly for personal excellence, Mushfiqur Rahim was not bothered with the near-miss after Bangladesh won the Asia Cup match against Pakistan by 37 runs on Wednesday and moved into Friday's final against India. 

"To be honest, after winning, I am not hurting anymore," Mushfiqur said in the post-match press conference at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. "I don't know how much you know about this, but I always believe that the team comes first. If I scored a century, and we scored 260 but lost the match, I wouldn't have felt good. This is not just lip service, but comes from my heart."

In the opening match of the tournament against Sri Lanka on September 15, Mushfiqur's 144 rescued the team from a precarious position. He did much the same here, except that he could not complete what would have been his seventh ODI century and while he was out in the 50th over against Sri Lanka, he perished to a Shaheen Shah Afridi outswinger in the 42nd over on Wednesday. 

"My disappointment [at getting out] was heightened because, as I kept saying after going into the dressing room, as a set batsman I should have batted at least until the 48th over. With the bowling quality they have even at the death, it is not easy to hit when you are new to the crease. We barely scored 100 runs in the last 20 overs.  We scored around 110 [103 runs in the last 20 overs of the innings, which ended at 48.5 overs]. So it was obviously disappointing for me. But I think the team winning is most important."

With all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan ruled out of the tournament with a finger injury before the match and opener Tamim Iqbal having gone home with a fractured left hand after the opening game, the onus was largely on Mushfiqur to compensate for a faltering top order that cannot seem to get going after repeated tries. 

"This [innings] is definitely top five. We needed one partnership badly at that time," said Mushfiqur about building a 144-run fourth-wicket partnership with Mohammad Mithun (60 off 84) after Bangladesh were cut down to 12 for three. "The wicket was pretty good to bat on and we knew that with the quality Pakistan had with the new ball we knew that we might lose a couple of early wickets; that can happen to any side. 

"But the way we bounced back was very important. And I think I should credit Mithun as well because the way he batted – he played very well in the first game and was under pressure in the next two games – but the way he backed himself was great from a young cricketer, seeing him play his shots and everything. The plan was to just knock the ball around in the first couple of overs because we knew that after losing three wickets the team [Pakistan] would be geared up and charged up against us. So we coped with the pressure really well in the first part and in the latter part we carried on with the run rate."

There were dark clouds surrounding Bangladesh cricket in 2014 as the Tigers were going through one of the toughest periods in international cricket.

Bangladesh were careening from one loss to the next in limited-overs cricket under then skipper Mushfiqur Rahim as they lost 13 consecutive ODIs.

Close defeats against Sri Lanka, followed by a blunder against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup, the embarrassing loss to Hong Kong in the World T20 at home and an all-loss tour of the West Indies had the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) looking for someone to rejuvenate the jaded side.

In came Mashrafe Bin Mortaza to take up the challenge of leading the Tigers in his second stint after a brief captaincy spell back in 2009 was ended by injury.

He returned to lead Bangladesh in ODIs in 2010 where the Tigers registered a famous win against England, but once again injury forced him out after leading in seven ODIs.

The rise of Bangladesh cricket in the ODI format started with Mashrafe's second stint as he led Bangladesh to its maiden World Cup quarterfinal in 2015, presided over home series wins over India, Pakistan and South Africa and also reached the semifinal of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017.

The once injury-prone Mashrafe has not missed a single game due to injury in his second tenure as captain and since November 2014 till the first ODI against West Indies, he has led Bangladesh in 61 of 64 games.

The three matches he missed were due to either suspensions for slow over rate or being rested.

The inspirational cricketer has often turned things around when Bangladesh badly needed a lift. The most recent example would be the ODI series win in West Indies earlier this year which came just after the humiliating defeats in the two-match Test series.

When he leads Bangladesh out for the 69th time in today's second ODI against the West Indies, the 35-year-old will join Habibul Bashar at the top of the list of most ODIs captained by a Bangladeshi.

Mashrafe has already reached the milestone of being the first Bangladesh player to play 200 ODIs. As two of those were played for an Asian XI in 2006, he will become the first player to play 200 matches for Bangladesh in the third ODI in Sylhet, where he will also surpass Bashar in the captaincy list.

He is already the most successful Bangladesh captain, winning 39 from 68 games whereas Bashar managed to win 29 ODIs in 69 matches.

But it is not just Mashrafe's leadership qualities that has made him exceptional; he has also led from the front with his bowling and since taking up the captaincy in 2014 he has taken 90 wickets in 68 games -- the most by any Bangladesh bowler during this period.

He issued a reminder of that in his 200th ODI as the man for the big occasion was adjudged player of the match for his superb bowling figures of three for 30 in 10 overs. 

If he needs further inspiration to perform today -- not that he needs anything other than the challenge of playing for Bangladesh -- today will also mark another landmark. It will be the 100th international match that Bangladesh's Big Five of Mashrafe, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad play together -- the first time that it has happened with a quintet in Bangladesh crikcet.

As the man who has done more than anyone to forge all that talent into a winning outfit, it will be fitting if Mashrafe notches win number 40 today.

Mohammad Ashraful, who was banned for five years for his involvement in match and spot-fixing in the BPL, today returned to the scene where it all started going bad for him as he is featuring in the opening fixture of the BPL for Chittagong Vikings. He was not shy in his first appearance after the ban as he became involved in a comical scene with none other than Bangladesh ODI captain and Rangpur Riders skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza -- a newly elected MP for Bangladesh.

The diminutive right-hander came to the crease at the fall of the first wicket to face the Rangpur skipper who had just gotten the wicket of Cameron Delport in the fourth delivery of the over. What followed can be termed as a dash and smash or perhaps a Mash and Ash coming together.

Ashraful played the Mashrafe delivery towards third man and then ran straight as an arrow towards the other end with the Rangpur skipper going back to his run-up mark unaware of what was happening behind him. Ashraful, hilariously so, proceeded to run straight at Mashrafe and barged into the Rangpur captain to general astonishment and cheers from the ground.

Mashrafe, not one to miss out on the odd bit of humour that BPL avails, welcomed Ashraful with a cheeky kick on the backside which the latter tried to evade. The two former teammates enjoyed a light moment in the very first match of this year's BPL.

Ashraful's tenure at the crease did not last long however as he fell to Shafiul Islam in the next over.

Earlier, Rangpur were bowled out for just 98 with Ravi Bopara's 44 enabling the defending champions to put on a fighting total on the board after they slumped to 7 for 35.