Young left-arm pacer Shariful Islam bowled brilliantly in the New Zealand series. He bowled fire in the historic ODI win against New Zealand. He is also one of the heroes of the first T20 victory.
In the first T20 of the series at Napier, the young pacer set the pace of the match with a pair of wickets in the second over of the innings. Shariful showed his pace bowling charisma before the match was washed away by rain at Mt Manganui. In that match too, he took one wicket in controlled bowling. Shariful also bowled well in the last match of the series at the Bay Oval in Manganui. He bowled 3.4 overs and took 2 wickets with 17 runs. The team was hoping to win even with a capital of 110 runs due to his excellent bowling. In the end, the Bangladesh team lost the last match by 17 runs due to rain. The series is tied at 1-1. However, Shariful Islam won the Man of the Series award as a reward for his brilliant bowling. He took 6 wickets in three matches.
So the team’s head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe praised this Tiger pacer. Praising Shariful after the match, Hathuru said, ‘We discussed in the dressing room – Shariful has been bowling brilliantly for us recently in all three formats. But 8 months ago he was not in the team and was not playing in any format. And now he is the best bowler. Another thing is Rishad, we were trying to give a leg-spinner a chance in white-ball cricket. He passed his test.’
Meanwhile, leg spinner Rishad Hossain gave a great performance in the New Zealand series. Chandika Hathurusingha is also satisfied with her performance. The head coach of Bangladesh clearly indicated at the end of the series that Rishad will be playing in the coming days as well.
Rishad was wicketless in 9.2 overs in the first ODI. He cost 62 runs. He did not play in the second ODI. He remained wicketless with just four runs in three overs on the day the Kiwis were bowled out for 98 in the third match. Then Rishad scored 24 runs in three overs in Bangladesh’s victory in the first T20 match. Took one wicket. Although the second match was washed away by rain, he remained wicketless with just 10 runs in three overs. And in the third match he gave 19 runs in two overs.
About this young leg spinner, Hathuru said, ‘Another thing is Rishad, we were trying to give a leg spinner a chance in white ball cricket. He passed his test.