DHAKA // Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh’s star debutant, has been warned by India’s Suresh Raina to watch his step when it comes to getting in the way of batsmen or risk a difficult time in top-level cricket.
Mustafizur took five for 50 as hosts Bangladesh pulled off a shock win over India in the first of three ODIs on Thursday, but the match was also marred by an incident involving the 19-year-old left-arm seamer and visiting captain MS Dhoni.
In the 25th over of India’s chase of 308, Dhoni set off for a single but barged into Mustafizur in the bowler’s follow through.
Dhoni and Mustafizur were both fined by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play during an international match”, which breached its code of conduct.
While the incident was hardly the cause of India’s defeat, and Bangladesh’s fourth ODI win against their subcontinental rivals, it left Raina unhappy.
“It would have been disturbing had one of our batsmen got run-out because of that,” Raina said. “He collided with Rohit (Sharma) and then MS Dhoni. Anyone could have been seriously hurt.”
As it was, the only person hurt was Mustafizur. After his collision with Dhoni the young seamer had to go off for a few overs for treatment. Mustafizur then returned to clinch his match-winning figures.
Raina said he expects the teenager lacks experience.
“He has to learn to stay away from the pitch when the batsmen are running,” Raina said. “The umpires need to have a chat with him about it. If he doesn’t change this habit, it will be very difficult for him.”
ICC match referee Andy Pycroft ruled on the incident.
“In the hearing, Dhoni defended the charge on the basis that the bowler was on the wrong line and realising that he couldn’t avoid the collision, he used his hand and arm to push him away as he went through to ‘minimise the impact’,” Pycroft said. “However, my assessment was that Dhoni deliberately pushed and shouldered Mustafizur, which was inappropriate.
“Mustafizur was fined 50 per cent of his match fee after he admitted that his actions in not getting out of the batsman’s way were inappropriate and he should have done more to avoid the contact.”
The second match of the series is on Sunday.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
