Mushy's Day 5 captaincy

[mufi_02]

I think Mushy and the management took some bold decisions and thought out of the box for a change. In hindsight, they look like wise decisions but during the game it looked somewhat foolish. For example,

1) In a team that have three front line spinners in form (Shakib's 10fer, Taijul/Jubair's 5fer), and Riyad, they decided to go for Hom who barely bowled in the entire series. But he got good turns and removed two set batsmen even thought might be considered lucky getting Raza out on a full toss

2) Common sense would dictate to keep Shakib bowl from one end. He is the most experienced bowler going through an amazing form. But he was having a slightly off day and was thus underutilized

3) Getting Riyad in for few overs and he got rid of Ervine

4) Taking the new ball and introducing pacers from both ends.

The declaration on day 4 was well thought out too. Overall this test shows meticulous planning by the management and we adapted to the situations every day.

[Eshen]

Not sure how much credit should be given to Mushfiq or choice of Shuvagata as the wicket taking bowler. Most of the Zim players played in a suicidal manner, clearly showed their lack of experience playing Test cricket.

This series is quite long, some of them prolly already feeling homesick (something that seems to have hurt us also in overseas tours often). With a coach like Mangongo, it's also very hard to keep your morale up.

[MHRAM]

I agree some bold decisions were taken by the team management.

I really didn't see any reason to bowl Hom boy. I mean when you have a better spinner like Lullah Mullah Dullah you could have picked him but I guess haturi-da knows something we didn't. Well, let us keep the thinking to those who are in the mix. The thing is, we fans don't know even half of what cricket experts knows.

[betaar]

Originally Posted by MHRAM
The thing is, we fans don't know even half of what cricket experts knows.

are you serious?

Look at the number of threads we open to teach players/coaches/selectors cricket, the sport.

[Ashfaq]

I can imagine the reaction here if Zim forced a draw. You guys would have roasted Mushfiq alive and probably would have hired assassin to take him out. Hindsight is 20/20.

So next time Mushy (inevitably) pisses us off, may be we should give him some credit and let him be.

[G-man]

why doesn't the little lad ever get any credit...when something goes right, "management" always comes up and gets some credit...when something goes wrong mushy is all by himself and manageemnt is nowehere to be seen.

truth is, it's a team sport.

[auntu]

Not giving Shakib enough bowling is not a smart strategy.

[One World]

First of all stop calling him Mushy!
He has gained enough experience to be called by a baby nick which allows the leeway every time he messes up a stumping, drops a catch or makes a dumb decision (the volume of which is too high for now as we are not a young side any more).

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by auntu
Not giving Shakib enough bowling is not a smart strategy.

In the process, getting your all time best bowler a nick and thus ending the dream of WC performance could be immensely detrimental to the NATION.

We won with some change. That is what matters. Congrats Mushi and HIS team.

[meazz1]

We fans become too demanding these days, we are not only happy with win any more, we want win along with new records to go with that!
Anyway, it's good to have high hopes.

[reyme]

Originally Posted by Dilscoop
I HARDLY doubt that it's Mr. Offies_Cannot_Bowl_To_Lefties Rahim who came up with a plan all by himself that was succesful. It's quite obvious our last coach let Rahim run the show. He's "plans" have cost us more games, notably the Asia Cup, than won any. Rahim is still young, he has lot to learn about captacny and game plan. And we needed a coach that'd take charge and teach Rahim some strategies. The jury is still out on the new coach tho and we'll soon find out about him.

And this was the first time I've heard our players say, "we had some plans and tried to execute them."

This. And I agree on this along the same line. During Jurgensen he ran the show pretty by himself, and some of his recent comments like "he used to think about team combo/plan" ahead of a match/series confirms that.

This time, however, he did execute the gameplan well, barring few minor hiccups here and there. In general, his captaincy was good enough in the 3rd test. I did not mind lack of using Shak's spin. Iceman was not in his best on the last day. He was abit off color, he also got only 1 wicket in the first inning. He stillbolwed 11 overs but did not get much turn and bounce and the batsmen were pretty good handling him.

We were only 20 some overs away from a draw. TEST Win was more important in our current situation than a new record which also seemed very unlikely.