The misery of Shamsur Rahman

In Bangladesh's second innings, hours before being dropped for the final Test of the series, Shamsur Rahman looked to defend a delivery from Malcolm Waller, played down the wrong line, and the deflection was snaffled up by Brendan Taylor at first slip. Zimbabwe appealed for a catch, but Billy Bowden disagreed. The time it took Zimbabwe to ask for a review suggested it was an ambitious call. And the time it took the third umpire, S Ravi, to make a decision, confirmed how close was it.

Being 0-1 down and sliding further must have been difficult for Zimbabwe. Being the third umpire must have been extremely difficult, too, as there wasn't much to see in the first few replays. Being the director in the broadcast centre must have been tough as well, as he had to produce the right angles. But, most of all, spare a thought for Shamsur. He would have most probably known all along that he had tickled the ball. Although he had to stay calm, the appeal from the Zimbabwe players would have been piercing. His heart would have been pounding when Taylor got into a brief chat with his team-mates.

Then the third umpire took ages to decide. It was probably three minutes, or four, but it must have felt like much longer for Shamsur. He stood next to Mominul Haque, kept his gaze on the big screen on the western stands. The graphic was static - Decision Pending, it said - and did not include any scary heartbeat sounds, but Shamsur probably heard them anyway. The longer it took, the more relaxed he might have felt, thinking the replays were inconclusive. But then the decision, out, must have been crushing. Time for a slow walk back then, after another failure in the series.

It wasn't that Shamsur was getting out early in his innings, like Tamim did in Mirpur. Shamsur spent more than three and a half hours batting in the two Tests and had faced 150 deliveries before the one that got him today. The runs just wouldn't come.

In the first innings in Mirpur, he had tried to drive one over the infield, but toe-edged it to mid-off; in the second innings, he tried to leave a delivery, but the ball followed his bat, got an edge and rattled the stumps. On the first day of the Khulna Test, he was struck on the pads by an inswinger. Bowden thought it was going down. Phew. But Zimbabwe wanted a review and it showed it was hitting the stumps.

If that wasn't distressing enough, he dropped catches, two of them within the space of four balls to reprieve Hamilton Masakadza who went on to register his career-best score. The second one was a simple chance at first slip and it went through his legs. Shamsur had to chase it down too. Then he took up his position again as if nothing had happened. He wouldn't have wanted another one coming his way at that time, though.

Today, Shamsur had spent 71 balls at the crease for 23 runs, his first double-digit score this series. The luck finally seemed to be tilting towards him. He was still struggling to get runs. He saw Tamim Iqbal hit boundaries, he then saw Mominul play a stylish wristy on-drive, but he was stuck on 1. But then he hit consecutive boundaries through point, off his 32nd and 33rd deliveries. That must have taken the weight off him. There were outside edges, two of them, both of them went for fours as well. It was meant to be his day.

So what if Bangladesh were stalling when they needed quick runs, so what if the giant flag on the western stand that had been bouncing all day now sagged over quiet heads … for Shamsur, things were looking brighter. Maybe a fifty would help him retain his place for the third Test.

But then Zimbabwe went through with the appeal even when they were not sure. The super slow-motion camera happened to be at the southern end, with the light behind it, helping get a clearer picture of the ball, recording more frames. No shadows to deal with. It might have been different from the other end. The third umpire, on the other day, might have ruled in his favour and no one would have argued. But everything that could have gone against him, went against him.

Not long after, the miserable series was over for Shamsur.