For most cricket fans in Calcutta, the World Cup at Eden Gardens would begin when India face South Africa on November 5. However, thanks to a few thousands who have come from Bangladesh, the Eden did not sport a deserted look while it hosted its first match of this World Cup on Saturday.
It’s another story though that the Eden could not reward all those who came to support Bangladesh with a win.
The occasion was ideal for Shakib-Al Hasan and Co. to cash in on such support, beat the Netherlands and keep their Cup campaign alive. But they dropped catches first up and then came up with pathetic batting, losing to the Dutchmen by 87 runs to be virtually out of contention for a semis berth.
Netherlands captain Scott Edwards after completing his half-century on Saturday. Santosh Ghosh
A handful of Dutch fans did turn up, but they were expectedly outnumbered by their Bangladeshi counterparts. The noise decibel grew with every wicket Bangladesh took and the runs they scored, but the end result only turned out to be an anti-climax.
The butter-fingered Litton Das and keeper Mushfiqur Rahim gave rival captain Scott Edwards reprieves, with Mustafizur Rahman being the unfortunate bowler on both occasions. That too in the same over. Edwards’ 68 helped the Netherlands recover from 107/5 in 27 overs to make 229.
Yet, the target wasn’t at all daunting, particularly with dew being a factor. The pitch, as expected, had a little bit of movement and extra bounce for the quicks and that proved to be good enough for the Dutch to rattle the Bangladesh batting line-up.
The short stint with his personal mentor had no impact on Shakib, who looked clueless before the extra bounce. No wonder he was greeted with the choicest of expletives thereafter from a few Bangladesh fans. His batting colleagues, including the senior ones, were worse as they either played loose strokes or looked perplexed even if the ball did just a wee bit, as Bangladesh folded for 142 with 46 balls to spare.
The attendance, till 7pm on Saturday, was 15,202. Following the dismissal of Mahmudullah, playing his final World Cup, the turnout obviously got halved.
Many of them were at the ground as early as 11 in the morning. Little did they know what was in store.
