As Australia mounted their best challenge to date and were slowly but certainly not certainly crawling towards victory, Dhaka was down and dejected. Many don’t watch many matches but follow the game. Cricket really doesn’t matter much, what matters is the flag. On Friday , against all previous cricket history Bangladesh won three times in a row. And nothing was more significant than that over by Mustafiz, the 19th over in which he conceded only 1 run when all that mattered were runs. It’s one of those overs that made history.
The match showed team resolve
The Australians had never expected many things when they came to visit. It didn’t expect the weather to be so hot, humid and muggy which was a super energy sapper and everyone struggled with it. More water and towels visited the grounds when the match was on than at any match before. But both teams played hard and both wanted to win. It was clear from the way both played. If Bangladesh wanted the first series win against Australia in any form, the Aussies wanted to avoid exactly that ignominy and so it became much more than a cricket game, it was a combat between two flags.
Australia certainly played better than the first two matches in the third if only because they had become much more accustomed to the conditions but their desire to avoid a defeat and not make it a humiliation was clear. But again, the team was not good enough. Bangladesh batting also remains doubtful and even though Afif has done well twice in a row, it was left to Mohammdullah to ensure carrying the bat through supported by Sakib which mad ethe big difference.
The hat trick of the debutant Ellis is being made a big noise all around. Congratulations and best wishes but it really didn’t have any impact on the outcome of the match.
Why did the Aussies fail?
Although 128 didn’t seem like a steep target the Aussies failed to reach it. But the Aussies have never reached any of the targets nor scored in the 120s so it’s no surprise. It’s only the cricket commentators who took it seriously. Marsh and McDermott put up resistance but not much more but it could have been enough. However by the 15th over, the RRR was almost 10 and that meant it had tilted in favour of Bangladesh.
Mustafiz’s 19th over decided the match. 24 runs away, had the Aussies got 8 they would be only 16 runs from victory. But Mustafiz gave only 1 and that changed the equation. It became 23 runs in a single over. Mahedi did go a for a 6 in the first ball but the rest were more restrained even with that free hit. But Aussies got 11 runs in that over which was high but not enough . Had the target been lower, the arms would have been stronger. But Mustafiz had ensured a target beyond their capacity. The flag was Bangladesh’s that flew.
What an over, what a victory. Salute.
