#Title

A purposeless mentality
Mushfiqur Rahim swept one off Simon Harmer to bring up a richly-deserved half-century as Bangladesh showed some fight on the third morning, facing a massive first-innings total set by South Africa. But two balls later, the veteran batsman attempted a reverse-sweep off a full delivery from Harmer, losing his castle in the process as his bat went nowhere near the ball. A collapse followed and Bangladesh were facing a heavy defeat. Taijul islam (bottom) took three wickets in South Africa’s second essay for a match-total of nine wickets.
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Bangladesh batting mainstay Mushfiqur Rahim had kept his promise by resorting to one of his go-to shots but it all came at the cost of putting his side in complete disarray during the third day of the second Test against South Africa at the St George’s Park in Gqeberha yesterday.
Right after reaching his 50 of 134 balls, the experienced batter went for an outrageous reverse-sweep shot at a crucial juncture of the game, at the stroke of lunch, when his side desperately needed his presence at the crease to avoid the follow-on.
The third day morning had promised to show the proverbial day with some brave and resilient display from the two overnight batters Yasir Ali Rabbi and Mushfiqur. However, the manner of dismissals of the duo, coupled with opener Tamim Iqbal’s hurried attempt to pile up runs under his belt in the previous day, gave enough evidence that there was a lack of clarity in the Tigers’ modus operandi on the batting front. It was in stark contrast to how the inexperienced troops of Mominul Haque performed in New Zealand earlier this year.
Before Mushfiqur’s blunder, Yasir Ali was guilty of playing across the line to Keshav Maharaj, who was turning the ball sharply from the onset of his spell. Mushfiqur had the glorious opportunity to consolidate with Mehedi Hasan Miraz but he chose the risky road.
It is worth remembering that the wicketkeeper-batter had made his intentions clear in May last year, where Mushfiqur mentioned that he was ready to embrace the consequences, even at the possibility of letting his team down.
“If the situation arises, I’ll play not one but four to five reverse sweeps next time,” Mushfiqur said after his cool-headed and match-winning 125 against Sri Lanka, in a game where he curbed his natural tendency to play the infamous reverse-sweep shot.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh, the situation might have been conducive for Mushfiqur to opt for the shot that was uncalled for but someone like Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, mentor to many leading cricketers in the country, would differ with him.
“There are a lot of factors to consider over here. One of which can be, that being the only established batter on the pitch and as he was playing for a while, having scored a fifty, his confidence should have been high before lunch,” observed Fahim.
“It’s obvious for any batter to think that he should play defensively ahead of lunch. I understand it’s a rush of blood, but why would a batter play such an extreme shot at this stage?
“We do expect that they will act responsibly. Mushfiq should’ve taken the game to lunch, as he could’ve stitched a partnership with Miraz and could’ve avoided the follow-on,” said a disappointed Fahim.
“He can do that well in practice, but as far as I’ve seen, his conversion rate of reverse sweep isn’t that good. Without mastery, playing this shot is very risky. And also, you can see turns on the wicket, so it’s very difficult to play such shots. It wasn’t the right thing to do, taking such a risk at this stage,” added the respected mentor to many including Mushfiqur.
Fahim found the Bangladesh batters mentally disorganised in the ongoing Test.
“The way Tamim played, it looked like he didn’t mind getting out but he wanted to play the shot. Being an experienced player like him in Tests, also being in a good form, he didn’t look like he wanted to extend his innings.
“Sometimes, when the batter doesn’t trust himself, he goes on to play aggressive shots, which can be a factor. I mean, they looked very vulnerable to me. It looked like, as if, they had given up already.
“If you look at the game against New Zealand in the first Test, our effort was to play as long as we can and try to draw the match if possible. And patient approach became the main reason for us to eventually win the match,” he explained.
Fahim was mostly frustrated not because of the result but due to seemingly non-existent approach.
“There should be one or two who should stand out and not give up, didn’t see that from anyone. The dressing room isn’t the state it was supposed to be. The attitude to play more balls to score runs is missing,” observed the veteran coach.
Hosts South Africa already sit with a fine cushion to whitewash the Tigers in the Test series after losing the ODI series and in the end, it would not be the result but the attitude that would hurt the Tigers the most.
SCORES IN BRIEF (DAY-3)
South Africa: First innings- 453 all out and second innings- 176 for 6 dec (Erwee 41, Elgar 26, Petersen 14, Bavuma 30, Verreynne 39 not out; Taijul 3-69, Miraz 2-34, Khaled 1-38)
Bangladesh: First innings-217 all out (Tamim 47, Mushfiqur 51, Yasir 46, ; Olivier 2-39,
Harmer 3-39, Maharaj 2-57, Mulder 3-25)
and second innings -- 27 for 3 (Tamim 13, Joy 0, Shanto 7; Maharaj 2-17, Harmer 1-8)