Mushfiqur Rahim has apologised to his Beximco Dhaka team-mate Nasum Ahmed for misbehaving with him twice during the Bangabandhu T20 Cup Eliminator against Fortune Barishal on Monday. In a match that Dhaka eventually won by nine runs, to remain in contention for a place in the final, Rahim’s behaviour with his team-mates, notwithstanding their fielding errors, was bizarre.
In the 13th over of the chase, when the Barishal batsman Afif Hossain started counter-attack, Rahim seemed to lose the plot. When the left-hander turned one towards the vacant short midwicket area for a single, both Rahim and Ahmed chased after the ball and after reaching their first, Rahim made a threatening gesture towards Ahmed, seemingly for not reaching there before him.
Dhaka started to make more errors. Yasir Ali couldn’t cut off and later chase down Hossain’s simple push to cover, resulting in a gifted boundary. Al-Amin fumbled a throw from the deep, with Hossain halfway down the crease. Then when he mistimed a scoop, resulting in a simple catch for Rahim, the Dhaka captain lost it.
Ahmed, fielding at short fine leg, lightly collided with Rahim as he was completing the catch, which was enough for him to threaten to throw a punch at his team-mate. Having avoided making an apology at the post-match presentation, Rahim made one on his Facebook page on Tuesday morning.