West Indies won the Super Over.
Bangladesh played their first-ever Super Over in a low-score thriller against the West Indies last night. Bowling first, they conceded 10 runs, as Mustafizur Rahman bowled the over, and in reply, Bangladesh could only assemble nine runs.
Akeal Hosein didn’t have a great start to the one-off set, but recovered well to save those runs and level the series. While Bangladesh did most things correctly in the game, they made a massive blunder by sending Soumya Sarkar and Saif Hassan as openers and Najmul Hossain Shanto at No.3 in the Super Over.
They had Rishad Hossain, who played a terrific cameo of 39 runs in 14 balls, including three boundaries and as many maximums, at a strike rate of 278.57 in the first innings and could have targeted short boundaries at one end. Following the game’s conclusion, Akeal confirmed he was surprised not to see Rishad in the middle, and this tactical blunder went in the West Indies’ favour.
“Yes, I was a bit surprised (not to see Rishad in the Super Over). I mean the guy that seemed to do the most destruction in the match, 39 off about 14 deliveries not out, and he’s not in your Super Over, hitting to the short side where he struck two sixes. You know, we all were a bit surprised that he didn’t come out at all, and you know, it worked in our favour.”
It’s hard to find any logic behind the move, and nothing justifies the call because Rishad was their best bet to take on spinners on that treacherous deck. Soumya Sarkar, who was one of their three batters in the Super Over, confirmed that the coach Phil Simmons and the captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz made the decision.
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The idea might be to maintain the RHB-LHB combination, so Bangladesh opened with Sarkar, a southpaw, and Saif Hassan, one of their most aggressive batters. When Sarkar fell, they wanted to maintain the variety and sent Najmul Hossain Shanto at one down, but he could only earn a leg bye on his only delivery.
West Indies also employed a similar tactic, but Bangladesh didn’t consider that their opponent had more natural hitters and could afford to maintain the LHB-RHB combination. The likes of Najmul aren’t big hitters, and Akeal is anyway capable of bowling accurately even against LHBs in white-ball cricket.
It was just a matter of a few deliveries, so Bangladesh should have gone with Saif and Rishad as openers, with Sarkar at No.3 to maximise their resources. The RHB-LHB combination hardly matters for one over, and the primary goal in Super Overs should be to stack big hitters upfront, irrespective of their batting hand.
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