This joy now solely belongs to Liton and co.
A victory by a gargantuan margin of 546 runs. Before this, Bangladesh’s previous highest victory in Tests was by 226 runs. Now, the margin of victory has more than doubled and reached 546! Such a victory is certain to evoke joy and likely to arouse a feeling of disbelief among the Bangladesh cricketers.
However, there’s no way of asking someone else about what a victory of such massive proportion feels like. How would there be, there is no one alive on planet earth other than the 11 Bangladesh cricketers who know this feeling! Does that mean that other than Bangladesh, no team has ever won a Test by 500 runs or more?
They have, but none of the players of those teams are alive any more. The last time Test cricket witnessed a match like this was 89 years ago. In that Oval Test in 1934, Don Bradman’s Australia defeated England by 562 runs. The last living member of Bradman’s ‘The Invincibles’ Australian team, Bill Brown, breathed his last 15 years ago at the age of 96.
In terms of runs, the biggest win in Tests is by 675 runs and it belongs to England over Australia. That Test in Brisbane was Bradman’s debut match and it took place six years before the Test in Oval. So, there is no point in wondering whether any player from that match is still alive. It’s even more useless to look at the only other match where the margin of victory was more than 500 as South Africa’s 530-run win over the Aussies came in 1911.
So many numbers! Are you getting annoyed by the overuse of digits? But there is nothing much I can do to avoid that. A lot more happened in the Mirpur Test which concluded before the lunch interval on the fourth day. If I go one by one, the list is in no way a small one. Najmul Hossain Shanto scored a couple of centuries. With this effort, he emulated Mominul Haque, the only other Bangladeshi to do this before him, who himself got out of a rut in the match by bringing up a century after a gap of 26 months.
Young Afghan pacer Nijat Masood’s celebration after picking up a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket, Bangladesh pacers announcing the changing of times and emerging as match winners, these are all definitely memorable incidents. But as Test matches are like a play happening on stage, such incidents inevitably take place in every one of them. Some matches see more of these incidents, some less. But very rarely there comes a Test where one number surpasses everything else! In this case, that number is ‘546’. In terms of runs, this is the biggest margin of victory in the past 89 years of Test cricket. So, is there any way you can write about this Test without using numbers!
As I was thinking of ending this barrage of numbers, two more numbers came to mind that demand some attention. The massive margin of victory in the Mirpur Test made me go through the past 100 year’s history of Test cricket. The four wins discussed so far, are all matches won in terms of runs. But in Tests, matches can also be won and lost by an innings. In terms of that, the record of the biggest victory in Tests is by an innings and 579 runs.
That match was won by England against Australia at the Oval in 1938. Bradman’s name has already come up a few times in this write-up. Don has to be mentioned once again as he was the captain of the Australia team in the match.
Bradman sprained his ankle while bowling in England’s only innings in that Test and was carried off the field with the help of his teammates. He couldn’t come out to bat in that match.
Bangladesh may not have ever experienced the ordeal Afghanistan team suffered in Mirpur, but they have suffered similar massive defeats many a times. Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott is also a witness to a few of those defeats. Four of Trott’s 52 Tests for England were against Bangladesh. He also has a double century against Bangladesh.
Trott, who came to the post-day press conference on all four days of the match owing to the media phobia of the Afghan cricketers, reminded everyone of those days. He didn’t do it to poke Bangladesh, but to show how difficult it is for teams when they first start out in Test cricket.
Even though the match was already in the bag after the first innings, Bangladesh chose to bat in the second innings to extend the lead to 661. In the past, Bangladesh’s opponents had the chance to do the same thing many times.
Had they done so, Bangladesh most probably would’ve also suffered the stigma of conceding such record breaking defeats. But there is no point in talking about what didn’t happen. But as Bangladesh and Afghanistan’s early days in Tests are getting compared, it feels only right to talk about Bangladesh’s biggest ever defeat.
It was a 465-run defeat against Sri Lanka in 2009 in the Chattogram Test. Only one sufferer from that defeat is still with the Bangladesh Test team, Mushfiqur Rahim. So, this win should feel extra sweet for Mushfiq.
Does so much talk of the past in a match report for a Test match seem unnatural? It won’t if you think about it a little bit. You tell me, what happened on the fourth day that warrants a detailed description? With eight wickets in hand, Afghanistan could add only 70 runs in 22 overs. Afghan batters were busy in a procession of getting to the crease and promptly returning to the pavilion after a little while. The manner in which they got out was so childish that it’s difficult to even remember how they lost their wickets. The ending, however, was most definitely not unremarkable. As the ending didn’t happen once but thrice!
It started with the umpire giving the last Afghan batsman Zahir Khan out caught behind. Bowler Taskin Ahmed let out a wild celebration and why wouldn’t he, as the joy was two-fold. Firstly, it was his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests and secondly, the wicket sealed Bangladesh’s victory. But DRS stopped the celebration in its tracks. Taskin, seemingly a little angry, bowled a full-toss next up which crashed onto the stumps. Finally, it was over!
But no, not even this time. The ball was above the batsman’s waistline and hence was adjudged a no ball. Three balls later, the match actually ended, but through an accident. Taskin’s bouncer reared up from the ground, stung Zahir’s elbow and left him unable to continue his innings.
In a Test where Bangladesh’s three pacers collectively picked up 14 wickets to signal the beginning of a new dawn in Bangladesh’s fast bowling, can such an ending be termed symbolic?
Probably, yes!
*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ashfaq-Ul-Alam Niloy