Of execution and intent

When the first Test ended on Monday, just an hour and twenty three minutes into the fifth and final day, there was bright sunshine. But the forecast was for rain in the afternoon and some more rain in the evening. Just after when lunch would have been if Bangladesh had shown more fight and taken the match that far, but were instead cooling their heels in their rooms at the adjacent NWU Puk Sports Village, the heavens opened and rained for half an hour.

Later, at around 4:00pm, there was a hailstorm, preceded by half an hour or so of gathering gloom that produced conditions similar to those that forced an early close because of bad light on the third day. In other words, at least two hours of play -- roughly 30 overs -- would have been taken out of the final day if Bangladesh had been able to show more fight in the first hour. Instead of the allotted 98 overs they would have had to face a maximum of 68. And the rain was not a surprise, but was forecast from the previous day. 

But, resuming on 49 for three, Bangladesh just managed to play 17.1 of those overs for the addition of 41 runs.

“We were thinking of saving the match. We weren't really thinking about the rain,” said Mahmudullah Riyad yesterday while talking to reporters before boarding the team bus towards Bloemfontein, where the second Test will begin on October 6. “Our target was to draw out the game; it would have been difficult to win. But we couldn't cope with the first session. Our execution was poor.”

Even if they were not thinking of the rain, it is alarming that they went about their stated target to draw the game in the manner that they did. Only skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was out to a special delivery from Rabada on the fifth day, and even then he could have left it alone. Mahmudullah, who was unsure whether to play or not against a Rabada delivery which was outside the line of off stump, hung his bat out and was bowled off the inside edge for the second time in the match. The other frontline batsman, Sabbir Rahman, as usual wanted to hit his way into some runs, missed a sweep and was trapped leg-before.

On the fourth day after Morkel's ripper to Tamim Iqbal and his subsequent lucky wicket of a review-shy Mominul Haque, Imrul Kayes went hell for leather, was dropped and then was finally caught behind for 32 off 42 balls. Failure to execute seems now to have become a cliché much in the vein that the term 'natural game' has been the go-to phrase for cricketers explaining shots inappropriate to the match situation.

“It is not wrong to play shots,” said Riyad when asked about their batting in the first innings too when, in response to South Africa's 496 for three, a number of their players got out after having settled. “Some get set through playing shots -- if he gets bad balls and hits three-four boundaries, then why not? He should play his own game. Conditions should be considered but these were good batting conditions. We couldn't execute our skills. We were very poor.”

He was still hopeful of a turnaround in Bloemfontein. “The belief comes from within, although we did not play well in the last innings. If we could convert the fifties or 30s, 40s in the first innings into bigger innings it would have been better. There's no use talking about that now, the main thing is we have to come back strongly in the second Test.”

There may be no use talking about it now, but the talk from Bangladesh has been heard louder than the action in the first Test.

It was a Test that started with an inexplicable decision to put South Africa in on a flat pitch, but Sabbir said after that day that any captain would win the toss and field first in South Africa – an assertion proven patently false by a cursory look at the stats. On the second day, after conceding 496 for three, fast bowler Taskin Ahmed said that they were happy with the way they bowled. On the third day, Mominul reiterated his support for the decision at the toss after Bangladesh were bowled out 176 runs behind. On the fourth evening, Liton Das insisted that they were not on the back foot after being reduced to 49 for three in chase of 424.

Only Mushfiqur's apology to the nation after the defeat on Monday seemed in keeping with the action on the field. But even after a 333-run defeat, talk of players playing their own game (a euphemism for the dreaded 'natural game') has been trotted out by Riyad. He also talked about respecting the conditions, but gave his team an out by saying the conditions were very good for batting, so presumably it was okay to play shots.

“We are here after a long time. But we can take confidence from the New Zealand series when Shakib [Al Hasan] and Mushfiqur batted well. We believe that our skills are good enough if we can execute it.”

It is the presence and precedence of skill that makes these words more culpable. There has been much talk about execution and the need for players to play their own game. But what of intent? The problem with this obsession with the natural game is that it hints that individual players will not and do not have to sublimate their gut instincts in favour of the team's cause, like Dean Elgar did when scoring a 388-ball 199 against an attack that gave him more bad balls than South Africa's. Whatever his natural instincts, Elgar's intent is to do what is best for the team.

With Bangladesh players' words completely disconnected from the realities on the field and their actions divorced from the needs of the team, it all comes down to the intent to see the team's needs as bigger than their own. Only then can execution follow.