A feel of Dhaka in Florida

I wrote this full article for cricinfo "The Stands". However cricinfo has edited some portions of my writings and published that!

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The Joy of Winning while Remembering the Country

Choice of game

For the cricket crazy Bangladeshi spectators, living in the United States, a match of Bangladesh National Cricket Team, taking place in the United States, is a dream come true! I live in Arizona, and booked the ticket to Florida just to watch these 2 games on the weekend! People from all over the USA, from different states, came to Florida to cheer up the Tigers! As Shakib said after the 1^st T20, “This short tour in Florida will be exciting for all because there will be present a huge number of Bangladeshi supporters. Hopefully the time will be excellent for our players.” We didn’t disappoint Shakib’s hope! It’s like a World Cup football or Olympics for us, which comes in every 4 years! Bangladesh is supposed to tour West Indies again after 4 years, and West Indies is arranging the matches in the soil of USA for subcontinental fans (last time they did it with India). So, this is our chance to chant for Bangladesh live!

Honestly, I didn’t think to win both games! At least one win out was expected against the World T20 Champions. It would be a great success if we win the series, but if we win one game, we will feel satisfied!

Key Performers & Top moments

In first game, it was Tamim’s blistering 22 runs over against Andre Russel which set the tone of the 2 matches! Bangladesh was 116/3 from 15 overs, and then Tamim scored 22 from next 5 deliveries! After hitting 3 sixes, although he got out trying to hit the 4^th one still that made the crowd totally spellbound! Everyone was dancing, cheering for Tamim. Even the West Indian fans, although they were few in numbers, were praising Tamim and Shakib’s partnership after it was 48/3! I praise for Tamim’s 74 from 44, but Shakib also scored 60 from 38 and bowled a magnificent spell, to take 3 wickets, conceding just 19 runs from his 4 overs! Tamim was awarded man of the match from the adjudicator, but Shakib was people’s man of the match because of his numbers in the game!

In the second game, it was the innings of Liton Das, which gave everyone the feeling of 90’s classy batting! If batting is an art then you feel the aesthetic of its kind with batsman who plays with timing, style, elegance using their wrist! Spectators will see this grace, and get more rapt by the beauty of batting. To name a few, Mark Waugh, Saeed Anwar, Azharuddin, Damien Martin, Mohammad Yousuf- all were the flag bearer of stylish batting from 90’s and early 2000’s! The problem is, in present age of power cricket you don’t see that style of batting from too many batsmen! Liton Das is one of a rare kind who will make you feel like “Whoa” when he times the ball, and as a Bangladeshi fan, most of the time you will feel disappointed seeing that after playing such 3-4 delightful shots, he gets out by 20-30’s range. But in the 3^rd T20 he scored a blistering, mouth-watering 61 runs from 32 balls, which made the crowd happy and make him the performer of the day! Crowd was expecting a century from him. But here comes his temperament and reading match situation skills. Tamim, Soumya, Mushfique got out in quick succession, so Liton had to just rotate the strike with the captain for a few overs and start hitting again after that. But Liton tried too many shots and got out! Management should sit with him and work with his match temperament! Liton is a great asset for Bangladesh and for world cricket. He shouldn’t be wasted.

Also, in the second game, it was Andre Russel who was taking the game away from Bangladesh. In no time, he hits 5 sixes, and Bangladeshi crowd was uttering magic words to make him out! One group was making “Chhu montor”- magic words to make Russel out, while another guy was just praying to get him out! A very typical subcontinental way! When Russel finally got out crowd got into a totally blistering mood thinking that we are surely going to win the match. That was a real top moment of the game.

Also, in the first match when Liton Das took the catch at the long on avoiding the collision with the other fielder, kept his feet inside the ground; it was a stunner!

And yes, the ace all-rounder Shakib again took a wicket for 22 runs and scored 24 runs, to make the crowd happy to be the Man of the Series!

One thing you’d have changed about the match

Yes, we won the match convincingly, we won the series. But it would have been better if we could win the second match by playing the full quota! The excitement would have been more. We believe that we could easily pull it off because Russel was out and West Indies didn’t have much chance! The rain came in, rain stopped within a few minutes. But the outfield was not ready to play. So, the announcement came in and we realized that we won the game and the series. That adrenaline rush didn’t come into our blood which would make us happier!

Close encounter

Sadly, in both of the matches it was Ariful was got targeted by the crowd! In first match, he dropped a sitter at deep mid-wicket near the boundary and West Indies hit 2 consecutive sixes in that same over! A few of the spectators just started to abuse Ariful, while others stopped them saying that catch miss is a part of the game. Sitting in the USA, we should be more civilized! Well, we should be civilized in the subcontinent also, but nevertheless, crowd was interesting.

But in the second match when Ariful failed to connect the ball in the 19^th and 20^th over, gave 4 dot balls, crowd was very angry with Ariful! “Why can’t he take singles and give the strike to Mahmudullah, who is striking the ball well.” This article needs to be censored if I write more about the crowd’s reaction about Ariful!

One of the interesting thing happened when Mosaddek, the substitute was walking along the boundary line with water bottle in his hand. Crowd from the mound called his name and asked for the water! And surprisingly, Mosaddek threw his bottle of water to the crowd, a few minutes after Mosaddek was walking again and he did the same thing again! Every one of the group of that crowd was eager to taste some drops of “National team’s water” saying that it’s special, it’s holy water; it’s national team’s water! That makes me wonder again how reverend these cricketers in our eyes!

Crowd meter & Banner of the Day

As Shakib expected, Bangladeshis were full in number. It was like a Dhaka Traffic jam, outside the stadium and it took more than half an hour to park our car at the beginning! Talking about the Dhaka traffic, a lot of people were having the placard to show their support to the ongoing student movement about “Safe Road, Safe Traffic” happening in Bangladesh, after 2 students were killed by a saddening road accident! As NRB’s we can’t do much to show our solidarity with the people living in Bangladesh. As Shakib also came to facebook live and showed his support with the students, a large number of NRBs grabbed this opportunity to claim for the safe roads and safe traffic in Bangladesh! There were a few banners which can be claimed as the banner of the day! “Students, you are protesting in the country, we are supporting off the country”, “Tigers, you are our last hope of happiness after all the negativities”, “We want safe roads, We want safe Bangladesh” were the most highlighted one in my eyes.

Entertainment

I have always heard that West Indians are the most entertaining cricket crowd ever! We have seen that in TV. But this time we experienced this. They were a very little in numbers compared to Bangladeshi crowd. But they are very much jolly minded, was dancing with everyone. Both Bangla and West Indian songs were playing. A Bangladeshi spectator and a West Indian spectator exchanged their flags and was chanting for both the teams together! That friendship and alliance was the highlight of the match for me! We play sport for that, not to make enemies!

Overall

It was a 9/10 performance from the team, because they have won both games! We, the NRBs who went there just to watch the game to see them playing on field live, was happy and satisfied with their game. Yes, people were concerned about what’s happening in the country, but Bangladesh Cricket Team can make us smile when we are in tensed situation every time. The person who wrote the placard, “Tigers, you are our last hope of happiness” was completely justified!

There are some scope of improvements for Bangladesh; but because we won, we were happy thinking that our dedication becomes worthwhile! As Shakib expected our support in USA, he got it. The whole team gave a victory lap throughout the ground and made the crowd happy!

cricinfo link:  "http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/24308011/a-feel-dhaka-florida"