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As good as Mashrafe gets

Mohammad Isam
It was breathtaldng but the gasps grew louder with every delivery. The two-man slip cordon and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim would raise their hands in anticipation of something coming their way, but would end up clutching their heads in anguish, marvel the delivery and pass the ball around. You would lose count of the number of times this happened in Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's fourteen overs yesterday.
The country's pace bowling spearhead found little reward but in his three spells, the Sri Lankan batsmen were probed and ques-uoned as if they were up against a harsh interrogator.
Michael Vandort was early in his sights. He was well beaten by' a good length delivery that kicked up and moved away after landing on the seam. And this was just the first ball Mashrafe bowled.
The tall left-hander played and missed a number of times in a 45-minute examination that was terminated when he left a huge gap between bat and pad. Mashrafe let out a loud yelp after seeing the stumps disturbed but that
was more in satisfaction than anything else.
By this time it became apparent that for the Sri Lankans to survive, they had to see Mashrafe off. But he kept coming at them for nine consecutive overs to make full use of the early morning conditions but it could be more to do with his perfect rhythm. His release was a purist's delight and kept hitting the seam time and again.
Mashrafe did err in line twice and was duly punished but he turned around and made sure his reply was just as quick. The man perceived out of touch by the commentators, Jayawardene, was initially troubled by Mashrafe and once the marathon spell was over, the experienced Lankan batted beautifully.
Midway through the second session, Mohammad Ashraful brought back his ace bowler for a breakthrough and although he did not get the wicket, the Sangakkara-Jayawardene pair shut up shop momentarily. So he was taken off and given the second new ball much later in the day and Mashrafe put the exclamation mark to his splendid day with the wicket of Thilan Samaraweera.
The right-hander came on strike after Jayawardene inside-edged the first ball of the 85th over for a single. Mashrafe kept Samaraweera on strike with two fuller-length deliveries and then played the one-two card by beating his outside edge with a good length ball.
Not quite game over for the gutsy right-hander who then went on to miss Mashrafe's final fling, another full ball that jagged in after pitching and hit middle and off-stump.
No matter how genius this performance was, the air around Mashrafe was of inevitability. Maybe his daily brilliance is spoiling us and the man himself doesn't seem to understand that this, 14-4-24-2, was a work of art.