After taking four wickets in his first stint, Ish
Sodhi destroyed the Bangladesh batsmen, and skipper Lockie Ferguson removed him
from the attack after the 19th over. In the 30th over, Sodhi made his second
appearance, and with a peach of a googly to dismiss Mahedi Hasan, he finished
off his first ODI five-wicket haul.
As a result, Bangladesh’s final recognised batting
tandem was broken, leaving Mahmudullah to fight alone as the hosts ultimately
fell 86 runs short of the objective in the second ODI. After reworking his
run-up to bowl more at the stumps, Sodhi later remarked that Hasan’s wicket was
particularly “satisfying” since it was the kind of delivery he had
been envisioning.
“The most satisfying wicket actually was the
fifth wicket,” Sodhi said. “Not necessarily because it was five
wickets but I worked really hard on my run-up to bowl a fraction quicker
compared to a year or two ago. That was the type of delivery that I was working
hard towards. It was really pleasing to see that it got me a wicket.
“A lot of the really successful new-age
legspinners are a lot shorter than what I am. They get the ball to skid to keep
the stumps in play all the time. I thought that the bounce could play against
me sometimes. One, they don’t actually hit the stumps.
“Sometimes on slow wickets, I can sit in the
wickets a little bit more. I was trying to add the skiddy sort of nature to my
game by changing my run-up a year ago. Certainly not trying to neglect my
height as well. I am trying to use it as much as I can,” he said.
Since there aren’t any spinning tracks in New Zealand,
Sodhi had to find other ways to train and succeed; the altered run-up was one
of them. Although he said that it took him some time to grasp Bangladeshi
pitches, he appeared at home in Mirpur on Saturday.
“In New Zealand, you might get a pitch that spins
once every two years. You have to find different ways to be successful. If you
can’t find those ways, it is easy to go for a lot of runs. Sit on the bench for
a really long time.
“So it is important to find other ways to be
successful. I naturally find it difficult here. The type of balls that spin
(here) don’t necessarily spin in New Zealand. Finding out what the stock ball
looks like is really important,” he said.