Out of Cup, Bangla brigade to back India now

KOLKATA: Emdadul Haq and his friends from Chittagong had promised a treat to their hotel staff and shop-owners on Marquis Street. Abijuddin Bhuiyan from Dhaka had pledged his family a grand dinner at Park Street. And Shahzadi Begum would have extended her stay in Kolkata and shopped a ‘little more’. But only if Bangladesh did the improbable by sailing past India in the cricket World Cup quarter-final on Thursday.It did look a possibility when Rubel Hussain and company had the Indian top-order faltering for a brief while. But for the Bangladeshis in Kolkata, it ended in heartbreak – a 109 run-defeat. Many felt that wrong decisions cost them the match.
“India is an experienced team and it would have been good enough had we put up a fight. Sadly, that didn’t happen today. A couple of decisions could have gone in our favour. If they did, Bangladesh might have restricted India to 260-270 and we would have had a closer match. The meek surrender was disappointing, but we are happy for India,” said Haq, casting a dejected glance at the TV screen even as another Bangladeshi wicket tumbled.
Qazi Mohammed Nazrul Islam refused to miss the last few overs, even though his family and friends insisted that it was a lost cause and that they were getting late for shopping. Islam stayed rooted to his seat at the hotel lobby till the seventh Bangladeshi wicket fell. “Harle jetar aasha thake. Tai haare dukhho nei, (You dream of winning only if you lose. The loss doesn’t make me sad)” he muttered, trying hard to hide his disappointment.
“We will celebrate and support India now. After all, it is India that has been with us ever since the nation’s birth in 1971. This victory is ours as well,” he regained composure. His friend Alamgir felt that wrong umpiring decisions robbed Bangladesh. “Rohit Sharma was not given out when he was clearly caught. He went on to score a hundred and took the match away,” he rued.
The day started on an optimistic note for the neighbours. As the telecast began at 9am, several shops lining Marquis Street and Free School Street put up giant screens. Hotels in the area, too, switched on TVs at the lobbies. Scores crowded around them and sang along with the Bangladeshi national anthem prior to the match. A roar went up as the camera focused on Bangladeshi fans at the MCG stands. The match started amid loud cheers but the crowd thinned as soon as Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma started tearing the Bangla bowling apart. By early afternoon, the giant screens had been taken off.
Mohammed Firazul Haq, a trader from Dhaka, found the defeat ‘hugely embarrassing’. “You win some, you lose some. But this was not expected. It might have been a different story had a few decisions gone in our favour,” observed Haq.
Bangladesh could still take a lot from the match, observed Emdadul Haq. “For us, it was a bad day. But for the players, this was a learning experience. This defeat showed that even though we were playing very well, we still have a lot of catching up to do,” he said.