Tigers' new-look fearless batting approach reaps rewards
A change of mentality and approach has been a buzz word in the recent two series for the Tigers. Coach Chandika Hathurasingha talked about ‘psychological safety’ in his pre-T20I series press conference where he meant the players have been given the freedom to play their natural game without worrying about getting dropped from the side. The players have surely been boosted by that.It has visibly been reflected in their game on the pitch.
Dot balls have always been an issue for Bangladesh's batting in white ball cricket. But Wednesday was different. Bangladeshi batters played only 23 dot balls in the 17 overs that they batted. They hit 27 boundaries in that time, undoubtedly a very rare feat. Actually, this was the first time in Bangladesh cricket history where Bangladeshi batters hit more boundaries than the dot balls they played. And this was not the only batting record the 'Fast and furious' Tigers broke on Wednesday.
Litton Das stole all the highlights amid Tigers' record carnage in Chattogram with the fastest T20I fifty by a Bangladeshi batter. He took only 18 balls to reach his ninth T20I fifty breaking Mohammad Ashraful's 20-ball record which stood for almost 16 years. And to everyone's utter surprise, he reached his fifty without a dot ball. He became only the third full-member batter to score a fifty without any dot ball. Litton did miss a massive chance for his 'Lit-ton' but did he play one of the finest knocks in Bangladesh's T20I history! But he did become the only Bangladeshi batter to score 80+ runs with a strike-rate of more than 200.
Litton's partner, Rony Talukdar, has been a vital inclusion to the T20I side ever since his return to the national side after eight years. He bagged his maiden T20I fifty in just the previous match, and on Wednesday, he played a useful 44-run innings off just 23 balls. He and Litton broke a number of records together in the Ireland series so far. One of them was the highest opening stand - 124 runs in just 9.2 overs.
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Wednesday saw Bangladesh reaching their fastest team 50 (3.3 overs) which they set on Monday (4.1 overs). They set the fastest team 100 too on Wednesday (7.1 overs).
202 for three after 17 overs was Bangladesh's highest run-rate in a T20I innings (11.88). With this, Bangladesh scored 200+ runs in two consecutive T20Is for the first time in their history. With the win over Ireland on Wednesday, the Tigers have now bagged five consecutive T20I wins for the first time.
Not only in the T20I series, the Tiger batters made hay in the ODI series as well breaking the highest-ever team total twice in the same series. The ODI series also saw Mushfiqur Rahim bagging the quickest hundred by a Bangladeshi batter too.
A change of mentality and approach has been a buzz word in the recent two series for the Tigers. Coach Chandika Hathurasingha talked about 'psychological safety' in his pre-T20I series press conference where he meant the players have been given the freedom to play their natural game without worrying about getting dropped from the side. The players have surely been boosted by that.It has visibly been reflected in their game on the pitch. The fearless opening stand, experiments in the middle overs and the 'fast and furious' pace attack. And, hopefully, it will only get better from here on.
