Where it all happens

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."

What could be the beginning of a turnaround for Bangladesh in the ongoing Asia Cup may seem on the surface to have been caused by the inspired inclusion of Imrul Kayes in the team for Sunday's match against Afghanistan a mere 17 hours after he was flown into the United Arab Emirates as emergency reinforcement.

Imrul stepped in and scored an unbeaten 72 to help take Bangladesh to 249 for seven after they were cut down to 87 for five in the 21st over. It showed great resolve from the left-hander not just because he coped with the extreme heat with zero time for acclimatisation, but also because he batted at number six for the first time in his career, never having batted below number three in 70 previous matches.

The triumph however was not Imrul's alone. It was that very decision to bat him at number six that rescued the team from wallowing in confusion because, thinking out of the box, they had devised a solution that seemed impossible when they crumbled to 119 all out in their first encounter with Afghanistan. Under the circumstances, it was perhaps the only way to avert potential discord within the team. Unsurprisingly, it seems to have been the result of skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza staying true to his convictions.

Confusion infected the Bangladesh camp ever since talismanic opener and the country's highest run-scorer went home with a fractured left hand last Tuesday. The decision to bring in Imrul and fellow discarded opener Soumya Sarkar was taken after Bangladesh's abject failures in two successive matches against Afghanistan and India on September 20 and 21 stemmed from persistent top-order implosions in Tamim's absence. It was not a decision that would have sat well with inspirational leader Mashrafe, who likes to back the players he is given so that he can ask them to give their all when it is required.

He was not part of the final decision  to call in reinforcements as he was busy playing India when the decision was made, and hinted after the game that it was no real solution as those two had also been dropped for non-performance.

Promising left-hander Nazmul Hossain Apu made his debut against Afghanistan on September 20 as Tamim's replacement, but neither Tamim's partner Liton Das nor the newcomer were successful. Both Mashrafe and vice-captain Shakib Al Hasan, the latter speaking the day after the defeat against India, seemed to speak out in support of the newcomers -- Liton has been a regular opening option for just four matches in this Asia Cup -- saying that they needed more time.

On the day of the match, Mashrafe spearheaded the decision to send the left-handed Imrul at number three to counter Afghanistan's demon leg-spinner Rashid Khan and perhaps negate his googly. It also served the purpose of showing faith in the opening pair that, when Tamim left, was deemed good enough to see them through the tournament. It was out of the box thinking that worked like a charm as far as the result was concerned, but also laid down a positive marker that newcomers can take courage from.

The tournament had started with Mashrafe taking the wildcard decision to ask Tamim to go out at number 11 even though he had his hand in a sling, and that contributed to a memorable 137-run win over Sri Lanka. While that decision was followed by Tamim's departure and, in turn, dismal performances -- the latest example of Mashrafe's out-of-the-box thinking has put the Tigers back into contention.

Even when Bangladesh seemed to be doing everything right, circumstances have conspired against them. They take on Afghanistan today in their last Asia Cup Group B match in Abu Dhabi AT 5:30pm Bangladesh time, having already qualified for the next stage. Their match is set to end about 15 hours before their next match, a Super Four encounter against mighty India in Dubai, where the Sri Lankans and Afghans reached at around 1:30am after their match on Monday. Their highest run-scorer is now in Dhaka trying to heal a fractured left hand suffered in the 137-run win over Sri Lanka on Saturday.

With the Asian Cricket Council's shenanigans with the fixtures, today's match is meaningless as it will not even determine which team will play which in the next round. But it will have consequences just by being held as it will severely tire out each team for their respective second-round matches -- Afghanistan's against Pakistan and Bangladesh's against India.

"The most important matches are on the 21st, 23rd and 25th [26th], and we will start it having played back-to-back matches," said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. "It's not like we have 24 players and can rest 11 for one match. If we field second tomorrow [Thursday] and field first on the 21st, there won't even be 10 hours to recover."

In that are a few clues – there may well be quite a few changes to the team for today's match. Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored 144 in the first game, is nursing a rib injury. Mominul Haque may come in for Mushfiqur, while the uncapped Nazmul Hossain Shanto will likely take Tamim's place. Mashrafe's words also strongly imply that, abandoning consequences for the match itself, both teams are likely to field first if they win the toss.

There is also a good chance that they will rest one of the pacers, meaning Abu Hider gets a game. 

The biggest threats from Afghanistan are leg-spinner Rashid Khan and off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who rode roughshod over Bangladesh in the 3-0 T20I series win in June.

"I don't think that we can come up with effective solutions thinking about it for one or two days," Mashrafe said. "But we have to play with a positive mindset and according to the situation.There will be risk when trying to attack world-class bowlers like them. But batsmen get in trouble thinking about the risk; they have to play positively."

Mashrafe was intent on giving a free rein to whoever comes in.

"Instead of putting pressure on them, let them play their game, the way they play in the Dhaka League. If they play with that mentality, feel the situation and play accordingly and are able to challenge themselves, of course they will do well."

What increasingly appears to be favouritism towards cricketing powerhouse India has turned the Asia Cup into a near farce. Even with two group matches left and Group A and Group B champions yet to be decided, on Wednesday morning the Asian Cricket Council has published the fixtures list of the Super Four stage starting on Friday.

That should not have been possible, because the original schedule had Super Four matches set as 'Group A winner vs Group B runners-up', 'Group A runners-up vs Group B winners' and so on. Therefore, unless group champions are determined -- as they will be after Wednesday's India vs Pakistan encounter and Thursday's Bangladesh vs Afghanistan Group B match, it is not possible as per the original schedule to name the matches for the Super Four stage.

The four teams have already qualified, but it should have all come down to the last group matches to determine the standings and the shape of the second-stage.

India had expressed a desire to play all their matches in Dubai and not visit Abu Dhabi during the tournament. It seems they have gotten their wish, and the fixtures have been set in such a way that while other teams will have to adjust their plans, India will play all their matches in Dubai.

"We knew nothing of it," said Bangladesh Cricket Board CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury, now in Dubai. "We have verbally sought an explanation from the ACC, and if not satisfied we will take it up in the ACC board meeting after the tournament.

"It is very disappointing," said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza yesterday after learning of the change when they arrived for practice at the ICC Academy. Bangladesh and Afghanistan were the most disadvantaged even in the original schedule because they will have to play on successive days in heat that exceeds 40 degrees Celsius in the daytime. The organisers made sure that neither marquee names Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka -- had they made it through -- would not suffer that fate.

However, the reason this latest tweak will rankle both sides -- apart from the fact that favouring one side at the expense of three others destroys the credibility of the tournament -- is that if the Super Four matches have already been decided, then today's match becomes completely academic and unnecessary if it will not even determine who the winner plays to start the next stage.

As such, a day before matches infinitely more important, the players are well within their rights to feel aggrieved and abused as they will play a full match with less than 15 hours of recovery time before starting the next one.

"Basically we were made the second team in Group B even before we played the last game. It is frustrating," Mashrafe, normally a very diplomatic public speaker, said.

"We'll play -- of course it is an international match where we are representing our nation, so of course it's important. But whether you are talking about group stage matches or other matches, there are certain rules within which they operate. We are getting away from the rules, so it's disappointing.

"Even a mad person would be upset," said Mashrafe when asked whether this state of affairs has upset the team.

ACC officials, meanwhile, have been tying themselves up in knots to explain the farce.

"We asked them for an explanation and they said that this was how it was originally intended -- Bangladesh would be B2 and Afghanistan B1," Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mahmud said. "When asked what would have happened if Sri Lanka qualified, they said that it was Sri Lanka/Afghanistan in the original schedule."

That means that they presumed Bangladesh's qualification -- a generosity of estimation not reflected in the scheduling. Another official said that it was written in the small print when the fixture was first released that India, if they qualified, would be A1 as they expressed a preference to play in Dubai. The fixture list the media received at the start of the accreditation process contained no such small print.

Roshini Jayakrishnan, the media consultant of the ACC, was asked in the Dubai International Stadium press box yesterday whether the organisation had any explanations for the change. She said that she would ask the BCCI, although the decision was supposedly made by the ACC.

The bias towards India in cricket is now common knowledge; it was only the nakedness of its presence in Dubai that surprised.