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Mash shines, then fades

Sports Reporter
It was the occasion of Mashrafe — Bin
Mortaza's much-awaited return but another paceman stole the wickets, if not the show, during the Asia Cup opener loss to Pakistan on Sunday.
Shahadat Hossain picked up three wickets for 53 runs from eight overs while Mashrafe grabbed one late scalp in a display of bowling that began well but tapered off towards the end, especially on part of the latter.
Bowling in an international game for the first time since April last year, he bowled skilfully at the top, glimpses of his past coming through but at the end of his spell, the Narail Express looked undercooked. After bowling five good overs, he was hit for ten runs in his sixth before skipper Mushfiqur Rahim gave him a breather. Immediately brought back after Pakistan had slipped to 197 for seven, it was expected that Mashrafe would mop up the tail; instead it was the old Mashrafe, bowling poorly with the old ball.
In his last four overs, he gave away 32 runs including the final over that went for 16, Umar Gul hitting him for a couple of boundaries and a six before being cleaned up for a quickfire 39. That eighth wicket partnership between Gul and Sarfraz Ahmed went on for 53 runs, enough to take Pakistan past trouble.
Mushfiqur however said that for a comeback game, Mashrafe did quite well. "Mashrafe bhai bowled well in the first 8-9 overs but gave away some runs towards the end. I think for a man who is returning, it is slightly difficult,” he said at the end of the game.
The ending put a dampener to what could have been a fine performance by the pace attack, though Shafiul Islam neither finished his ten overs, nor picked up a wicket. In fact Shahadat too wasn't asked to complete his full quota, the last time he's done such a thing being back in 2008 (when he also took three very expensive wickets against Pakistan).
But it could have been so much better from the three pacemen, especially since the "weak link" Shahadat delivering three lucky wickets --
Younis Khan miscuing a flick and Mohammad Hafeez and Asad Shafiq miscuing pull shots. On the day however, Shafiul Islam remained the weaker man, neither finishing his quota of ten overs nor taking a wicket.
Mushfiqur defended his choice of three seamers by calling it an ideal combination.
"We chose to field after winning the toss. The pacers did well early on, their batsmen didn't get to play too many shots. We wanted 1-2 early wickets to put them under pressure.
"If we had taken an extra batsman or a spinner, the part-timers would have been used and that would have taken the total past the 280-mark.
"The six batsmen, if they had all batted well, would have been enough for the chase. But me, Tamim and Riyad all got out in a quick span. This combination of three seamers is quite good," he explained.
It's not often that the Tigers employ three fast men (last time was against Zimbabwe in 2011 with Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain and Nazmul Hossain) so it's their responsibility to make use of such occasions rather than wait for luck.