There were some concerns when Banlgadesh Women’s top pace bowler, Marufa Akter, was benched in their most recent match against Malaysia in the ongoing Women’s Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.
Before their match against Sri Lanka, Marufa Akter hadn’t bowled her allotted overs in 17 games. Bangladesh was forced to make up for her mistakes with someone else, particularly as the match progressed.
Though she was rarely given a chance with an older ball, Akter had established herself as a prominent new-ball bowler. Hashan Tillakaratne, the head coach, acknowledged that Marufa’s death bowling is an issue and that solutions are being developed.
“We discovered that she is a little pricey in the final overs, which is why she didn’t bowl four overs throughout that time (more than a year). We have a new plan and aim to finish her before the 17th over. After working with her, we wanted to add some variations to her arsenal, such as yorkers and slower balls. Especially after the power play, she needs to vary her pace and work on not being too predictable. She is currently working with a fast bowling coach, and I’m sure she will pick up the skills in the coming days.
Marufa mirrored the feeling expressed when she said that she is making a lot of effort to overcome her shortcoming, although previously acknowledging that it was something that had only recently come to her attention.
“To be honest with the new ball there is swing but I cannot control my bowling in the death over and that (having control in the death over) is very important and I am working towards it,” Marufa stated to.
“I have not worked on pace variation (earlier) and now working on it and Alhamdulillah it’s going well,” she stated.
“The in-swing (with the new ball) is natural for me but I feel it will not be good enough for me to sustain and so I am working on my variations in the death overs” she stated.
“I’m attempting to pick up the pace, but I believe I’ll be better prepared when I can bowl the cutter, yorkers, and slower,” she remarked.
“During the camp in BKSP Shiblu Sir (former Test pacer Robiul Islam) worked with me extensively to develop these skills,” she stated.
They didn’t attempt to push too hard, Robiul continued, because she will have to learn it gradually and not all at once.
She worked with Robiul during the residential camp in BKSP prior to the Women’s Asia Cup. “Basically, there are few technical things that need to be rectified but as the time is short considering they will be on tours we could not do the technical things,” Robiul remarked.
She has trouble bowling these three deliveries, so we basically concentrated on improving her variations, such as trying yorkers and slower balls in addition to the off-cutters. Robiul Islam stated, “She is confident and looks better than before, but it will take her some time to learn how to bowl those deliveries. I hope she will pick up some speed when we can work on the technical things that are anticipated to happen after she returns from the Asia Cup.”
In response to veteran fast bowler Jahanara Alam’s opinion that trying to rush things won’t be advantageous in the long term, Marufa stated that she is not losing sleep since she does not understand the art of bowling in the final over. Alam has returned to the squad for the Asia Cup.
“Jahanara Apu is a very experienced bowler and I ask how she handles the death overs and she says that she tries different variations like bowling slow cutters and all those things,” Marufa remarked.
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“She said just said that as you are learning you will master it( bowling in the death over) with time and as I can bowl those deliveries as I am not playing for a long time and I feel she was quite right,” she continued.
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