Mr. Efficient

Mahmudullah Riyad

Only last week, Bangladesh had gone 29 World Cup innings without having a single centurion. Now they have two centuries, thanks to the incredible form of Mahmudullah Riyad. The 29-year-old all-rounder, who scored the first century for the Tigers with a 103-run knock against England on March 9, followed it up with a sublime knock of 128 not out against New Zealand in Hamilton yesterday. That took Mahmudullah to fourth position in the top run-getters' list in this World Cup with an aggregate of 344 in five innings at an average of 86 and a strike rate of 82.89. Yesterday's knock against New Zealand was probably the better of the two by the all-rounder, not only for the fact that it was bigger and he remained unbeaten, but also because his scoring rate was a progressive one; first fifty coming in 63 deliveries, second fifty in 48 deliveries and the last 28 runs in just 12 deliveries.