Bangladesh are discovering the luxury of a strong pace attack, after Nahid Rana, Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed played match-winning roles in their six-wicket win in the second ODI against New Zealand on Monday. They shared eight wickets, with Rana taking his second five-wicket haul in ODIs, and even part-time seamer Soumya Sarkar picked up the big scalp of Tom Latham as Bangladesh bowled New Zealand out for 198.
It was the fifth time New Zealand had been bowled out for below 200 in Bangladesh. Normally it is spin that has stopped them but, in this series, as has been the case for Bangladesh over the last couple of years, pace has dominated.
At long last too, the Bangladesh team management have acknowledged that pace will win them games even at home. The evidence of this recognition was the switch to a greener, bouncier surface for the second ODI after a typically barren pitch didn’t deliver for the home side in the first game.
Particularly with Rana around, Bangladesh are finding out how a thinking, express bowler can deliver deadly blows over muliple spells. Rana has now taken five-wicket hauls in successive ODI series. He blew Pakistan away in the first ODI last month, with his 5 for 24 leading Bangladesh to a big win. He took 5 for 32 in Monday’s game, and Bangladesh wrapped up victory with nearly 15 overs remaining.
In his display against Pakistan, Rana took the first five wickets of the innings as Pakistan slumped to 69 for 5. This time, his five wickets were spread over three spells, and his pace never dropped below 143kph. In fact, the last ball of his tenth over was also well into the 140s.
Rana removed Henry Nicholls and Will Young in successive overs in the first powerplay. The two batters fell to deliveries of varying lengths: Nicholls was sucked into a drive off a full inswinger, while Young couldn’t keep a bouncer out, fending it to backward point. Both batters fell off the first balls of the respective overs, with Rana cleverly not bowling a similar delivery to the one that had got him the wicket for the rest of those overs.
Rana rushed another batter, Muhammad Abbas, with another bouncer in his second spell. And then he returned and removed Dean Foxcroft with the first ball of his third spell. He was all over New Zealand.
Rana later said the secret to his consistent pace wasn’t really a secret. He works hard on maintaining his body, and he’s trying to build towards being able to bowl even longer spells without tiring.
“Firstly, I thank Allah for keeping me fit,” he said. “Secondly, I am always looking after my fitness, whether I am in training or not. I am always talking about how I can develop my fitness. I want to get to a stage where I can bowl for a long time, but don’t feel too tired. I am doing gym and running, and generally try to maintain myself in my off-time.
“Injury doesn’t come with an early warning, but when you are at war, you have to expect to take bullets. Injuries are part and parcel of the game. We have people who keep a close eye on our workload management. They maintain how much the pace bowlers will play.”
Rana said he tries to read the situation in front of him before deciding which length and line to bowl. “I feel a bowler should deliver for his team whichever way it helps for the team to win,” he said. “It can be economical bowling or it can be aggressive, wicket-taking bowling. I start off with the basic plan of bowling in the right areas. Then I have to read the wicket, and try to take advantage out of it.
“I try to react to the situation in front of me. I switched between lengths, like the shorter length or the yorker, depending on the need of my team. I believe that you can find success if you can read the situation better. I try not to repeat mistakes from the past. I am learning from my mistakes.”
He also acknowledged the camaraderie within the fast-bowling group. Taskin and Shoriful are often seen talking to the younger Rana, but the communication is two-way, with the senior bowlers also needing information from time to time. “We share information among each other whenever one of us is bowling well in the middle,” Rana said. “What is working in the wicket, and how to use the wicket, that sort of thing.”
