Yesterday, England eliminated Bangladesh batters one after another, and the Bangladesh supporters who were present at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association stadium in Dharamshala were subjected to more suffering as a result of this.
While the Bangladesh supporters took the insults in silence, the local spectators yelled, “Harega bhai harega, Bangladesh harega” (which translates to “Bangladesh will lose) over and over again.
Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan, the two English openers, got off to a blazing start when they were given the bat earlier, thanks in part to some average bowling from the Tigers. The two contributed 115 runs, and the fervent Bangladeshi supporters started to get ready for what was going to happen next in the game.
However, they exploded in glee when Shakib eventually supplied the breakthrough for the Tigers. He removed Bairstow with a magnificent armer, which went on to smash the wood, and he had scored 52 runs off 59 balls.
The roar started to become louder in support of Bangladesh, but it didn’t last long since Malan and Joe Root worked together to punish the Tigers bowlers. Malan went on to get his sixth century in one-day international cricket. In a short amount of time, the pair contributed 151 runs to the score for the second wicket.
A tiny portion of the English supporters’ organisation known as the “Barmy Army” had gained control of the situation by that time, and they discovered that their voices were supported by supporters from the local community.
It seemed as if the Bangladeshi fans were trapped without any way out. However, the Tigers were able to turn the tide in their favour during the last ten overs of the innings by taking seven wickets while scoring 68 runs off of the final 63 balls. This turned around the momentum of the game.
England’s scoreboard showed 365 for nine in 50 overs, which was the highest total at the venue despite Bangladesh’s late comeback.
“Listen, we are aware that England is a very powerful squad, but we expected our guys to at least put up a good fight against them. But the way the England batters handled our bowlers, and the way our batters failed once again, it was humiliating to some degree, particularly when the opposing fans began to insult your team,” Mamunur Rashid, a businessman in Bangladesh, told The Daily Star yesterday. “It was especially embarrassing when our batters failed yet again.”
The Bangladesh top-order imploded like a house of cards in response to a massive goal of 365 runs. At one point, they were reeling at 49 for four, which caused some of the disappointed Tigers fans to leave the stadium.
After Liton’s solitary struggle, which consisted of 76 runs scored off of 66 balls and studded with seven fours and two sixes, inevitably came to an end, a small number of Bangladeshi supporters were still holding out hope for a miracle. In the end, the Tigers were only able to score 227 runs throughout the course of 48.2 overs, which resulted in a humiliating loss of 137 runs.
There are some Bangladeshi fans who are still willing to have trust in the Tigers, and they are hopeful.
“To tell you the truth, it’s not the end of the world at all. In cricket, such disappointing days are hardly unheard of, and you should not forget that we competed against the world champions. I have every confidence that Bangladesh will make up for their previous performance in the next match. A supporter of Bangladesh who identified himself as Jalal Ahmed stated, “We are with our Tigers.”
The third and final match between Bangladesh and New Zealand will take place on Friday in Chennai, where Bangladesh will go.