Beauty of an agonising wait

Like many yours truly was really disappointed when both Dhaka Dynamites and Barisal Bulls decided against fielding their two top draws -- Mustafizur Rahman and Chris Gayle -- in their inconsequential final group league clash of the Bangladesh Premier League on Thursday night.

Both teams had good reasons to rest their valuable assets before their blood-and-thunder clash in the Eliminator 1 last night. But for the spectators, who could hardly wait to see how Bangladesh's young prodigy Mustafizur bowls against the Gayle-force, it was really a disappointing decision.

The wait appeared to finally be over when Gayle walked along with Rony Talukder to open the Barisal Bulls innings in front of a capacity crowd at Bangladesh's home of cricket in Mirpur last night. But Dhaka captain Kumar Sangakkara decided to play with the patience of Mustafizur fans by introducing spinners from both ends. Gayle gleefully accepted that challenge, merrily hitting those slow bowlers all over the park.

Sangakkara finally introduced Mustafizur in the fifth over. Still, Mustafizur was denied to have a go against the most dangerous batsman in the world. It was mainly because party-pooper Sabbir Rahman, played all the six deliveries with a dead bat and refused to take a single. The agony of the pensive fans, waiting to see the bout, mounted when the left-arm pace bowler was not reintroduced in the next four overs. Sangakkara was however kind enough to bring Mustafizur in the tenth over and a kinder Sabbir took a single off the second ball.

The moment arrived and the crowd, anticipating something, roared as the lithe left-arm pacer started his seamless run and bowled one of his already famous in-cutters. Gayle went on the front-foot and thought he had covered the line of the ball. But by the time the lazy left-handed West Indian giant realized that he erred, the ball, which moved in considerably, found the big gap between his bat and pad before knocking his off-stump.

While Gayle looked dumfounded, an excited Mustafizur, who had earlier announced that the wicket of Gayle would fulfil his childhood dream, embarked on a trademark celebration -- clapping his hands until it became sore.

Gayle is the latest high-profile casualty of Mustafizur, who has announced his unmistakable arrival in world cricket with a mesmerizing performance this year. Already forcing his way into the ICC ODI team of 2015, this young lad can't stop entertaining. At the end of the day, it's not about whether Dhaka or Barisal won. But the fans will cherish that one delivery from Mustafizur against Gayle for a long, long time.