Akeal Hosein and his surreal Dhaka escapade that sees him become the hero for the West Indies in the 2nd ODI.
Akeal Hosein’s Dhaka escapade: 4am arrival followed by Super Over heroics.
At 4:00 am on Tuesday, Akeal Hosein arrived at his hotel room in Dhaka. After two injuries in the squad, he was called up by the West Indies selectors for the second ODI. Around midday, Hosein boarded the team’s bus to the Shere Bangla National Stadium. He was bowling the Super Over for the West Indies at the end of the evening, defending ten runs.
With left-handed Soumya Sarkar gaining the lead, Hosein had an adverse matchup. He hit a wide at first, then a no-ball. Without coming into contact with a legal ball, Bangladesh scored four runs. Despite giving up another wide with four needed off the final ball, Hosein miraculously saved the over from there and avoided being struck for a boundary.
“I don’t think I have anything left in me again, buddy,” Hosein said after bringing West Indies back from the brink to level the series 1-1. “Got to the hotel at 4:00am. 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.”
Despite being a top-tier limited-overs player, Hosein had not played an ODI in two years. He was bowling the Super Over under duress, even though he was playing on a roaring, total turner in Dhaka.
When Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto were on strike, Hosein was able to get the ball to turn into the left-hander’s body. He bowled above the wicket against Saif Hassan, preventing the right-hander from releasing his arms.
“It’s a tricky pitch,” he said. “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 [Sarkar] 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.”
“I have been in a situation like this,” Hosein said. “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 [runs]. And I had to defend nine [10] or something like that. And one ball [the no-ball] went for six, and then they needed two [three] off four [five] balls or something.
“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 [three] runs to go, Liam Livingstone, world-class hitter on strike, with four [five] balls to go, if Chris Jordan can believe, why can’t I believe?'”