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307 an anomaly

Sakeb Subhan
Perhaps because of the popular obsession with batting and boundaries, Bangladesh's bowling has largely been ignored when talking about the country's brave new era of competence in ODI cricket. It is a curious phenomenon, because a team's health can best be gauged by how it performs on the field, when teamwork truly comes into the spotlight.
The brave new era can be traced back to the Tigers' previous series against New Zealand, the 4-0 whitewash in October 2010. Since that series, it is their bowling that has been the most impressive suit. While batsmen like Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan have taken on all comers during that period, it was their bowling that had often set up victories. Of the 46 matches that Bangladesh played, starting with that series against the Kiwis, they held the opposition to less than 250 runs on 33 occasions - 15 of them while fielding first, 11 of which turned out to be victorious. Of the rest, 10 were won whilefieldingsecond.
Perhaps that is why Bangladesh conceding over 300 yesterday against New Zealand seemed such a surprise and
an anomaly - it was only their fourth such concession in 46 matches since October 2010, a number that compares favourably to all Test playing nations except West Indies (three) and their current opponents New Zealand (also four) over the same duration. These figures suggest that Bangladesh, although without any superstar bowlers like Dale Steyn or Saeed Ajmal, have the makings of a world-class fielding unit. Therein lies the basis of their remarkable improvement from being a team expected to surprise to one expected to win.
That there are no obvious superstars in the bowling line-up only underlines their cohesiveness as a unit. In this series the first two matches were won by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza applying pressure at the top in tandem with spinners Abdur Razzak, Shohag Gazi and part-timers Nasir Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mominul Haque. That is before the biggest improver, Rubel Hossain, came in with spells of surprising hostility and he has a hattrick and a six-wicket haul to show for it. Bangladesh's out-cricket generally has been excellent too with rarely a catch put down in the first two games ora boundary needlessly conceded.
It was partly New Zealand's ability to break this stranglehold - which the Tigers had established on touring teams since last year's series victory over an explosive West Indian batting line-up -- and an excellent batting pitch that finally put the fielding unit under the cosh. And although the usually excellent Mashrafe had a bad outing and the fielding unit suffered lapses like Rubel's crucial dropped chance off centurion Ross Taylor, there were enough signs still of a bowling unit that can pull things back. Bangladesh briefly reined the Kiwis in aftera rollicking opening start. In years past a team may have gotten away to much more than the Kiwis eventually scored, which made a huge difference in the outcome yesterday.
There are things to leam of course when you concede more than 300. One wonders when Mushfiqur will stop using Mashrafe as a death bowler -- he conceded 32 in his final two overs. Also, the wisdom of choosing to field first on a belter can be questioned. But then again, maybe it was because of the faith he had in his bowling department who may not have, for once, fully repaid it yesterday, but in the final analysis did just about enough.