West Indies left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein admitted that he was surprised to not see Rishad Hossain bat for Bangladesh in the Super Over of the second ODI. West Indies defended 11 runs to keep their hopes alive in the series, courtesy Akeal’s composed bowling effort.
While the Bangladesh team management opted to send Saif Hasan and Soumya Sarkar and followed it with Nazmul Hossain, who failed to take the team over the line, the absence of Rishad was surprising given he made 39 off just 14 to help the hosts post over 200.
“Yes, I was a bit surprised (not to see Rishad in the super over),” said Akeal. “I mean the guy that seemed to do the most destruction in the match, 39 off about 14 deliveries not out, and he’s not in your Super Over, hitting to the short side where he struck two sixes,” he said.
“You know, we all were a bit surprised that he didn’t come out at all, and you know, it worked in our favor. He was one of the few guys who sort of packed that power and he had that reach because he’s quite a tall guy,” he added.
Akeal, who arrived last night, added that he is happy to do the job for his team despite arriving at the team hotel just hours before the game. “I don’t think I have anything left in me again, buddy,” said Akeal. “Got to the hotel at 4 AM but it’s part of the job, and once you commit to something and once you give your word, you better be ready to turn up and give 100%. No excuses and I almost messed it up, but thankfully, you know, I took the team home in the end,” he said. “I have been in a situation like this. It was an Eliminator in The Hundred. And it started off quite similar. I bowled a no-ball. In The Hundred, a no-ball is two. And I had to defend nine or something like that. And one ball went for six, and then they needed two off four balls or something. And I remember Chris Jordan coming up to me, and he said, “Don’t worry, you got this.” And I said to myself, “If he can believe that I have this, with two runs to go, Liam Livingstone, world-class hitter on strike, with four balls to go, if Chris Jordan can believe, why can’t I believe?” So, yes, I’ve been in a situation like this before, and very thankfully, I’ve gotten over the line and won the game for my team,” he said.
“It’s a tricky pitch. It’s not one that is turning at a fair pace. The ball is jumping a bit, so for me, to the left-hander, it was definitely to make him hit square. He’s quite a powerful guy, so I think that if he has arms, he can hit through the line easily. So, for me, it was just trying to spin the ball from as close as possible on a good length and force him to hit square, because that square boundary was quite big.”
Akeal also admitted that he was surprised to see a black wicket. The West Indies created history when they became the first team to bowl 50 overs of spin in an ODI innings. Akeal, Roston Chase, Khary Pierre, Gudakesh Motie, and Alick Athanaze all bowled their full quota of 10 overs each as the lone specialist pacer in the eleven, Justin Greaves, remained unused.
The record for the most number of overs bowled by the spinners was held by Sri Lanka – which they did on three occasions – against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 1996, against New Zealand in Colombo in 1998, and against Australia in Dambulla in 2004.
“You really think that wicket is gonna change?,” asked Akeal about the series decider. “I mean, yeah, when you look at its surface and what it’s doing, it makes little sense asking your fast bowlers to run up and exert that kind of effort to get results on that pitch. We do have a number of quality spinners and really impressed with Alick Athanaze today as well. You know, he goes down as a part-timer, but at the end of the day, discipline is key,” he said.
“He was disciplined, he stuck to the plan, he stuck to what we ask of him, and he just stayed stump-to-stump and it paid off. So, on surfaces like these, you have to be proactive and try and pick the best 11, whether it be the best bowling combination or your batting combination. If you can see today, we stuck to a left-right combination. So, it’s all about doing what’s required to get home, to win that match,” he said.
“To be honest, even though this pitch is giving a lot of assistance for spinners, it’s still tricky as well, because now your margin for error becomes even smaller. If you’re spinning the ball too much, it spins away from the bat, spins away from the stumps. If you’re a fraction short, you know, the batsman could sit back and cut and pull. But at the end of the day, all we want to see is good cricket. I mean, yes, I’m a bowler, but I bat as well, so at the end of the day, all we want is good cricket,” he said.
“We just broke our record today. 50 overs of spin. So you tell me. Where in the world have you seen that? Lovely match, exciting, you know, it was nail-biting, but I’ll leave it as that,” he said adding that he was confused with his TV when he saw the first game. “I turned my TV on (to see the opening game) and the first thing that I did was check my TV, because I thought there was something wrong with it. I thought the color had gone or something like that. The pitch was black, and I was like, ‘surely something is wrong with my television.’ And yeah, it was surprising,” he added.
