Mahmudullah, the seasoned batter with no fixed batting position in the team, has scored yet another CWC century. Last night in Mumbai, the 37-year-old batter scored 111 runs against a dominant South African bowling lineup. After being repeatedly forgotten by his management and coaching staff, Mahmudullah proved his worth again.
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Mahmudullah Proves his worth, again
In a supposedly “Batting Friendly” pitch of the Wankhede Stadium, South Africa did the obvious by choosing to bat first after winning toss. After a sluggish start, the Protea batters started conducting their usual business, scoring over 300 runs. Quinton de Kock’s 174 was enough for the Proteas to yield 382 runs in 50 Overs.
The Bangladeshi batting lineup crumbled at the first sign of aggression from the Protea bowlers. With the exception of the lone survivor, Mahmudullah, no batter contributed any meaningful numbers to the chase. For context, Liton Das’s 22 is the second-highest individual score after Mahmudullah’s innings of 111 runs. Such a total collapse in the batting lineup shrank Bangladesh’s innings to 233 runs, light years behind the target of 383 runs.
Mahmudullah hits a patient ton in a trying chase 👏@mastercardindia Milestones 🏏#CWC23 | #SAvBAN pic.twitter.com/eJNYiZpogV
— ICC (@ICC) October 24, 2023
In the midst of such a disappointing atmosphere, Mahmudullah’s century shone like a lone star on a very dark night. He is now the oldest Bangladeshi batter to score a century in a CWC event. Bangladesh has six Cricket World Cup centuries in its record book, with three of them now contributed by Mahmudullah. Previously, he scored two centuries at CWC 2015 against England and New Zealand.
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With such outstanding consistency coming out from Mahmudullah, questions about the management’s role in sidelining Mahmudullah from the Asia Cup remain unsolved. Additionally, his unsuitable batting position and the ever-so-unsteady batting placement assigned to him before every match is concerning from a fan’s point of view.
