The ‘impact’ of dot balls

A team that scored 146 runs in 68 deliveries should not lose a Twenty20 match chasing a target of 168. But on Friday at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, this is exactly what happened in the match between Bangladesh and Pakistan, in which the former lost by 21 runs.

This stat may seem hard to believe to someone who hasn’t watched the match live. But the Bangladesh fans who woke up early in the morning on their weekly holiday to watch the match unfold on their television screens won’t be surprised.

They and a handful of fans present at the ground saw how the Bangladesh batters allowed the Pakistan bowlers to pile on dot ball after dot ball in between scoring shots, which eventually cost Bangladesh the match.

Out of the allotted 120 legal deliveries, Bangladesh didn’t score any runs in 52 balls. In a 20-over match, Bangladesh effectively conceded eight maiden overs, they didn’t score a single run in over 40 per cent of their allotted deliveries.

Had the Tigers managed to turn 22 of those 52 dot deliveries into singles, Bangladesh would’ve completed their third T20I win over Pakistan, the first one ever away from home. But that wasn’t to be.

Now, the question naturally arises is why the batsmen concede so many dot deliveries. Were the Pakistani bowlers at their absolute best, was the condition testing for batting or were the batters extra cautious in their approach.

The one-word answer to all three of these questions would be, ‘No’.

Pakistani bowlers looked a bit lethargic, probably still mentally recovering from their seven-match T20I series against England at home, which they lost 3-4.

The condition at Christchurch also wasn’t testing, with the pitch not playing tricks nor there being any prodigious swing on offer for the fast bowlers.

Bangladesh batters can’t also be accused of not trying to hit big shots, with the team hitting 12 boundaries and five sixes, not a bad account for a team that struggles to find the boundary in the shortest format of the game.

In the opening match of the tri-nation, the problem for Bangladesh was not boundaries but the number of times their batsmen swung for the fences and missed.

The rot started from the top, with the makeshift opening pair of Sabbir Rahman and Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

Sabbir and Miraz have been brought in to play ‘impact’ innings at the top of the order and set the tone for the rest of the innings.

But in the four matches they have opened the duo has yet to make the desired ‘impact’.

On Friday, Miraz and Sabbir got dismissed inside the powerplay with scores of 10 off 11 balls and 14 of 18 balls respectively.

In their brief stay, Miraz managed to hit one impressive six over long-on against Haris Rauf while Sabbir pulled Mohammad Wasim for a four.

But other than those boundaries, the duo has nothing to show for it. In search of big hits, both Miraz and Sabbir kept trying to slog the bowlers or scoop the ball behind the wicketkeeper’s head, without any success.

Their insipid opening stand led to Bangladesh conceding 17 dot deliveries inside the powerplay, meaning Bangladesh scored no runs in almost half of the powerplay overs.

So, Sabbir and Miraz did end up having an ‘impact’ in the game, just not the kind they or the Bangladesh management were hoping for.

However undesirable, dot balls are not something a team can completely eradicate from their game. On Friday, the Pakistani batters were also guilty of conceding too many dot balls.

Pakistan conceded 43 dot balls in their innings, nine fewer than Bangladesh. Those nine scoring deliveries ended up being the difference between the two teams.

The Bangladesh cricket team is trying to course correct in the T20 format and the way to do it according to the team’s technical director in T20s Sridharan Sriram is to play ‘impact cricket’.

To play impact cricket, the Bangladesh batters since the match against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup are noticeably trying to hit more forceful shots.

But in search of big hits, they are neglecting the safest way to keep the scoreboard ticking, taking singles.

Bangladesh nearly paid the price of conceding dot balls in the first T20I of the two-match series against the UAE last month.

In that game, Bangladesh had conceded 51 dot balls but managed to eke out a seven-run win.

Against an associate team, Bangladesh could make up for the dot balls. But against a seasoned team like Pakistan, the dire ‘impact’ of conceding over 50 dot balls is too much to come back from.