Epoch-making story of Bangladesh

As a Test side, Bangladesh’s performances haven’t met the expectations of their massive fan base, although success in ODIs in the recent past has helped. The country’s cricket following is immense, and talented players are emerging from several regions. Cricket is a national pastime that has taken over one of every three conversations in modern Bangladesh – the others are about traffic and Facebook.

There were a lot of backward glances and speculations of the progress Bangladesh cricket had made in the 16 years and four months. But on March 20, the Tigers managed to create the history by winning the 100th Test match at the P Sara Oval in Colombo. The journey was dissected in all imaginable ways. Even so, there was a surprise in store, a happy one if you are a Bangladesh fan.

HOW HISTORY WAS WRITTEN

For almost the whole five days of the much-talked about Test match, Bangladesh cursed their poor luck and the trend continued till the last hour of the game. Their journey on the fifth day was not very easy, however, especially after Sri Lanka’s monumental effort in the second inning with the bat. Dilruwan Perera and Suranga Lakmal got more than what they had expected, stretching Sri Lanka’s second innings to 319 runs to set up a difficult target for them on a wearing fifth day track.

Bangladesh tried too hard to separate the duo after Sri Lanka resumed on 268-8 but they lacked the power to intimidate them. Mustafizur Rahman deceived Lakmal once with an off-cutter but the fielders had no clue where the ball was going to land. Perera crawled to his fourth Test fifty while Lakmal was testing the patience of Tigers with a free arm before everything came to an abrupt end. A misfielding of Subashis Roy resulted in the run out of Perera and Sakib thanked Lakmal very much in the next over to wrap up the Sri Lanka innings.

But two wickets in two balls before the lunch break brought back the sense of déjà vu. Soumya Sarkar seemed worried about Herath pitching the ball in the rough and preferred to deal with him going down the wicket. But he chose a wrong ball to charge the spinner, Test cricket’s most successful left-arm spinner, also known as a master of art in fourth innings. The ball turned beyond his expectation and ended up as a catch of Upul Tharanga at long off. Imrul Kayes was left perplexed off the next ball, which did not turn at all contrary to the one that was delivered to Soumya. As an obvious outcome, Imrul poked one to Asela Gunaratne at slip to suffer a duck and leave Bangladesh 23-2. Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman somehow got Bangladesh through to lunch and grew in confidence to launch a counter-attack in the post-lunch session. They posted 109-run for the third wicket, which turned out to be match-winning stand finally. Tamim was imperious to say the least while Sabbir curbed his natural instinct to keep the scoreboard rolling. By the time Perera removed Tamim, who faced 125 balls for his 82, the match was well within the grip. Sabbir’s dismissal to the same bowler for 41 in Sri Lanka’s one of the many successful reviews also did not create any panic. When a seemingly harmless delivery of Herath whipped off the bails of Sakib Al Hasan’s off-stump, Bangladesh had every reason to feel down with victory still 29 runs away.

Sri Lanka suddenly looked on top and a late Bangladeshi collapse seemed almost inevitable at the P Sara Oval. Fans covered their faces with hands once umpire raised his finger to declare Mushfiqur Rahim out to an lbw appeal of Dilruwan Perera soon. Mushfiq did not offer any shot, so in all likelihood the decision of Indian umpire Sundaram Ravi would stand despite the impact clearly looked outside the off-stump. This was when luck finally smiled on Bangladesh as the ball-tracking showed it was going to miss his off stump. Mushfiq survived on 11 and did not look back since, taking Bangladesh home with an unbeaten 22 and received some support from debutant Mosaddek Hossain who scored a priceless 13 during the crucial period.

When young Mehedi Hasan hit the winning runs, a doubles off Herath that took them to 191-6 in 57.5 overs, Bangladesh completed an epoch-making effort to celebrate their 100th Test match in style sealing the four-wicket win, all 11 Bangladesh cricketers were not only far from sitting ducks, but Tigers who dominated the Lions in their own den. Nine years and eight months after they hit their lowest score of 62 runs at this very ground, Bangladesh now pulled off a thrilling win, which unfolded another chapter in their ever-developing cricketing story.

The latest win — Bangladesh’s just fourth away and the first against Sri Lanka in 18 attempts — ended the two-Test series level after they lost the opening Test in Galle by 259 runs.

Bangladesh had a long break in the Test format, between July 2010 and August 2011, and this time suffered heavily through losses to Zimbabwe, West Indies and Pakistan in the space of five months. Their advances in ODIs meant that they could take some of that confidence into the Test arena. Drawn matches against Sri Lanka in Galle (2013) and Chittagong (2014), a drawn Test series against New Zealand at home (2013) and some individual milestones lit up their path. Bangladesh players grew more agitated at the lack of Test cricket during this period, but much of it was down to the BCB’s preference of ODIs and T20s to Tests. ODI successes in 2015 and a maiden Test win over England in October 2016 meant that Bangladesh started to have a bit of clout on the ICC table.

Cricket has given the people of Bangladesh a new identity, and that’s what should keep the game, and its most cherished format, in the country. T20s are big in Bangladesh too. But gaining Test status has meant that Bangladeshis have something to dream about. On the field of play however, it has been more reality and less dreaming. Still, there have been moments of drama, and periods of progress.