Robin’s first outing ends in a bat-flash
Telford Vice
An unfortunate first
byTelford Vice•
Robin and out, on Test debut. © AFP
Robin and out, on Test debut. ©AFP
“Holy ricochet!” If you can’t bat, man, you’d better be Robin. Going on how Mahfijul Islam handled the first delivery he faced as a Test player at the Wanderers on Sunday, batting wasn’t his strong suit.
Mahfijul – nicknamed Robin, as many Bangladeshis are – left enough daylight between his bat and his body to allow for the passage of an 18-wheeler truck between them. At least he played straight, but that was the other element in his downfall.
Kagiso Rabada’s delivery – the first of the series – was also straight. The ball took the edge of Robin’s overly outstretched bat and ricochetted to the gully, where Marco Jansen untangled himself slickly to take a sharp catch moving to his left.
Hence the quote above. We’re not making this up. “Holy ricochet!” was indeed exclaimed by Robin, as played by Burt Ward, in the 13th episode of the first season of the “Batman” television series in 1966. Robin was moved to blurt his line when he was nailed by the Mad Hatter’s dastardly ray, which hit him after Batman – or Adam West – used a mirror to ricochet it away.
Thus ended, almost before it started, Mahfijul’s 38th first-class innings. Last month he batted for almost 11 hours and faced 351 to score an undefeated 217 for Mymensingh against Chittagong in Bogra. On Sunday he became the fourth man to be dismissed by the first ball he faced as a Test debutant.
For almost 116 years and 1,199 Tests, no-one suffered this fate. Then Jimmy Cook edged the first ball of the Friendship Series, bowled by Kapil Dev, to Sachin Tendulkar at second slip at Kingsmead on November 13, 1992 and we were underway.
Allan Donald helped <a href="https://absafricatv.com/bangladesh-opt-to-bat-against-south-africa-as-mahfijul-makes-test-debut/” title=”Bangladesh opt to bat against South Africa as Mahfijul makes Test debut”>South Africa return the favour at Sabina Park on April 19, 2001, when Leon Garrick fended the opening delivery of the fifth Test to gully, where Shaun Pollock took the catch.
Abdul Malik joined this unhappy club in Abu Dhabi on March 2, 2021, when he dragged Blessing Muzarabani’s first effort onto his stumps.
And so to member No. 4, Mahfijul. Aka Robin, who trudged back from whence he had come – which at the Wanderers is a long way up a staircase formed by awkwardly elongated steps and covered by a tunnel – looking like he had been rudely woken from a pleasant delirium.
What might he look forward to from here? Cook was 39 when he made his debut and played just two more Tests. That was two more than Garrick, who made 27 in the second innings and was never seen in a maroon cap and whites again. And to think he had scored, two months earlier, 200 not out in an opening stand of 425 with Chris Gayle for Jamaica in a first-class match against West Indies B in Montego Bay. Malik has played eight more Tests with a top score of 62, his only half-century in 15 innings.
None of them did as well as Batman. The original series ran for three seasons and amassed 120 episodes. Many other series have followed, along with at least a dozen live-action movies. That’s a lot of kapow! Or, as Robin might have said, “Holy guacamole!”
Or even, as Mahfijul will hope, “Holy second innings!”
Mahfijul Islam
Bangladesh
Bangladesh tour of South Africa, 2026, 1st Test
Bangladesh tour of South Africa, 2026
