Day one has it for Bangladesh

Usually, whenever there is a test match involving Bangladesh, one can guess that Bangladesh would be hoping for the rains to drop down so that they can end the match with a draw convincing fools that they would have won the game had there been no interruption by rain or bad weather. But, that might not be the case in case Bangladesh are facing Zimbabwe with their chances being high against that trouble torn team. And, speaking present, the latest entry into Bangladesh's wish list would be the West Indies against whom, at least at home Bangladesh can hope to win.

Yesterday in the first day of the first test match against West Indies at Chittagong, until rain interrupted in between, Bangladesh was doing well by not losing wickets at regular intervals and scoring at just less than 3.0 runs an over, which would not have been the case had West Indies been batting. It would not be wrong to say that the pitch also assisted the Bangladeshi batsmen which on the other hand makes the Bangladeshi captain's decision to bat first a mistake. But, it is always good in test matches to opt to bat first no matter what the pitch has got to say.

With repeated bounce, it is more of a certainty that the pitch will start giving troubles to the batsmen who bat in the days to come irrespective of whether a roller has been used or not. Bangladesh were able to cross the 250 run mark on the first day itself without losing too many wickets. If the other side of the cricketing world is considered, Sri Lanka in their first test against Pakistan were bowled out for 197 on day 1 itself. But, Sri Lanka were not playing at home and neither were Pakistan. Moreover, Sri Lanka are considered to be better outfit than Bangladesh.

At the same time, Pakistan are a far better outfit than West Indies. Coming to the first day's play, there were two batsmen from Bangladesh who notched up half centuries when Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal scored 68* and 52 respectively. Despite varying the fielding, Darren Sammy couldn't stop 136 runs in running between wickets not to forget the 23 boundaries scored to keep the ball boys on their toes. Whatever the Bangladeshis do, every effort gets applauded unlike their opponents who take home nothing despite winning and on the other hand get criticized in case they lose. Check out for the latest on Stock Market.

Save English cricket campaign

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts that England are at present the only team not to have lost a game to any of the non test playing nation and also against Bangladesh. But, with every encounter against a minnow like Bangladesh, England are found coming up with a performance that is just slightly better than a defeat. None of the remaining 8 nations would have as many close encounters against minnow teams as England might have had. May be West Indies could well be excluded from the list. This is the 2^nd time in a row that England are facing such a drought in one day cricket against Bangladesh.

England won the 2^nd one dayer against Bangladesh by just 2 wickets which speaks for itself regarding the caliber of the English team. And the victory was possible due to the fact that there was a batsman in Morgan on side who held the nerves firm for England despite wickets falling from the other end. Without a batsman on one end, victory would have been far from question for the English team. There were five batsmen from the English side who returned back to the pavilion after scoring single digit scores. The English side lost 8 wickets compared to 6 from the Bangladeshi side.

Such a scenario occurs in games where there are two strong teams battling it out there. Like it happened in the match between Australia and Pakistan in the group stage of the ICC Champions trophy last year. This is in a way worse than a defeat when a team that is expected to win in a one sided manner gasps for the same though I have cited this as 2^nd best to defeat earlier here. One has to question whether it was England indeed who made it to the semi finals of the ICC Champions trophy last year and were they the ones who beat the Proteas 2-1 on their home ground.

Had it been the Bangladesh who had won the match in this fashion, the world of cricket would have been in full praise for Bangladesh but this may not be the case with England. The only positives for England lied in the area where the man of the match award went to Eoin Morgan who belonged to the England side unlike in the last game where the man of the match was a Bangladeshi batsmen in Tamim Iqbal. And some mature decision from Alistair Cook meant in going in for 3 bowlers who bowled 10 overs each unlike the lone bowler who bowed 10 over in the first encounter.

A perfect match for Bangladesh

At present, England is the only team in world cricket not has had a loss against any non test playing nation. Although they have lost to Zimbabwe earlier, those were the times when Zimbabwe used to play test cricket. However, if the first one day international between England and Bangladesh, if not for the end results, England had nothing more to take home. All that England could manage was to take a 1-0 lead in the series. The entire English innings could not produce a single shot outside the ground while Bangladesh could manage the same on 3 occasions. Anyways, it is not the number of sixes that determine the caliber of a team.

At the end of the game, the man of the match was awarded to the Bangladeshi batsmen in Tamim Iqbal for his splendid 125 that included 3 huge sixes and 13 ordinary hits to the fence. It was Tamim Iqbal who was the lone six hitter in the entire match and was the ultimate choice for the man of the match award. England had to rely upon the performance of the entire team for a win against Bangladesh, which should have seen them do it with just a single player taking the game away from the hosts. Not to mention that Bangladesh have attained a better status as hosts in the recent times.

At the same time, in the bowling department, the England captain Paul Collingwood had to go in for 7 bowlers, with only one bowler in Graeme Swann bowling his full quota of 10 overs. Even Ryan Sidebottom who is a frontline bowler in the English side was given the ball to bowl just 8 overs. It is just not understandable whether Collingwood did that in an attempt to give his bowlers like Pietersen some bowling practice or did Collingwood fear a major upset that would see England as well in the list of other teams to have lost to the minnows atleast once is not evident.

And if the bowling department of the Bangladesh side is considered, it was a one man show with Naeem Islam bagging 3 out of the 4 wickets that fell. There were 3 Bangladeshi bowlers who bowled their full quota of 10 overs in Shakib Al Hasan, Abdur Razzak and Naeem Islam as against the lone bowler from the English side. A better performance from the Bangladeshi side would have meant in a team approach towards the game rather than a single guy turning up for his team. But, it was only a two men show that led Bangladesh with Tamim Iqbal leading the batting and Naeem Islam leading the bowling. Whatever, Bangladesh's strategy is found working towards England.

New Zealand Start their assult on Bangladesh

This was one such apple pie for the Kiwis which they would have welcomed with both hands. For, this is one such series in which even lesser known players can come out with a big knock or an innings of their life. Bangladesh is one such team regarding whom a whitewash can be expected. This is one way by which Bangladesh can help other teams. India recently played a two match test series against Bangladesh which they won 2-0 (obviously) and this in turn helped India maintain their recently acquired number one status in test cricket. And now, it is New Zealand's turn to rejoice.

Irrespective of whoever wins the toss, there can at most times be only one loser in Bangladesh. This time, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first, meaning which a mammoth total was in store for Bangladesh to chase which Bangladesh would obviously not be able to. As expected New Zealand did put up a mammoth total of 336 for Bangladesh to chase down. It is not possible to sideline any one New Zealand player especially when they were playing Bangladesh and that too in their home ground. But, the highlight of the match was the number 8 batsman Jacob Oram who blasted a 40 ball 83.

In addition, there were other batsmen in Peter Ingram who was playing his 3^rd one day international and yet was able to score 69 runs facing the new ball. But still, how does it matter when the opposition is under par compared to the batsman who is facing. So was the case with Neil Broom who scored 71 runs from73 balls, playing his 19^th one day international at the age of 26. As wickets kept on falling at irregular intervals, the fresh batsmen gave in more strength than the earlier ones. But, Jacob Oram has done it in the past as well when he belted the Aussie bowling en-route to his 101 runs from 83 balls.

The only highlight for Bangladesh being that there was a bowler in Shafiul Islam who returned with figures of 4/68 from the four overs that were allotted to him. But, the Bangladeshi batsmen showed a little bit of maturity when the openers viz Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes started the run chase in a decent manner when they out up a 71 run partnership for the 1^st wicket. It was after that wicket that the forth coming batsmen started flattering when four other batsmen went for single digit scores. Bangladesh were left with only to fight a losing battle which they did rather hesitatingly. At the end they fell short by 146 runs to win and 7 over to complete their quota of 50 overs.

A lot of hide 'n' seeks in the game

If the end of the third day's play was considered, it was as though India will have to struggle for two more days to win the game and an innings win was almost ruled out. And, even at the end of the match, India didn't walk home with an innings win. India had to bat another time to ensure a win for them. This was not owing to any sort of rain delays which was the case in the earlier game against Bangladesh at Chittagong. Neither were the Bangladeshi batsmen so strong that India had to sweat for every wicket of Bangladesh.

However, if the earlier part of the third day's play was considered, there was a 200 run 2^nd wicket partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique. And, things didn't end just there for the Indians. There was another 68 run 4^th wicket partnership between Shahadat Hossain and Mohammed Ashraful which threatened to take the game to atleast another day. Earlier to that, India did well on day 1 to see the Bangladeshi batsmen collapsing for a mere 233 runs giving hopes of an innings win for India. It was Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma who took the initiative towards destruction of the Bangladeshi innings.

And then, it was India all the way with almost all of the Indian batsmen posting half centuries. India ended the 2^nd day putting up 459 runs on the board which finally saw them declaring the innings at 544 runs on the board. After this, it was as though an Indian win by an innings was confirmed for a short period of time not until Bangladeshi batsmen Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique did as mentioned above. After that, unexpectedly after the fall of the 5^th wicket, it was a cycle stand effect at Dhaka where the remaining 6 wickets fell for a score of just 22 runs.

Still, this eventually couldn't guarantee India an innings win and had no other option but to take to the crease once again. It was all because of the initial damage done by the Bangladeshi top order batsmen from which India could never recover and had to pay the price. There was frequent underestimation from the Indians' side which the Bangladeshi batsmen made full use of until the Indian bowlers realized their mistake and got back to the game. India has to consider themselves lucky that the match didn't take another day to finish, with India finishing the game well before the end of the 4^th day itself.

Does Dhoni have an answer for this?

Well it was all praise for team India who were thought to have realized their mistake when they took the Bangladesh team seriously and batted in the way they would have against any other team when they scored 459 runs in less than a day's play on the second day's play after bowling out the Bangladeshi batsmen for a score of 233 on the board. And, India gave signs of having taken the game away from the Bangladeshis when they ended their first innings after posting a total of 544 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. But, only to be mistaken.

It was a sort of illusion that India had to just wait for one more day so that they can get the Bangladeshi batsmen out and spend two more days in relaxation. May be after the Indian batsmen did their job in a more perfect manner, the bowling department has gone to relax keeping away from their minds the fact that they had not yet completed their duty of winning the match which meant in bowling out the Bangladeshi batsmen out for the second time. But, whenever any team takes Bangladesh for granted, the Bangladeshis have made it a routine to make the opposition pay the price for the same.

How can one afford to relax when a Bangladesh team puts up a partnership of 200 and that too against India? May be this is the first 200 run 2^nd wicket partnership for Bangladesh against any team barring West Indies (may be to an extent). The entire day saw only one Bangladeshi batsman falling to the Indian bowlers when on the other hand, there were 3 Indian batsmen making their way back to the pavilion after putting up a total of 85 runs after they were 459/5 at the end of the second day's play. So, in a way, Bangladesh had a better day that India.

There was a Bangladeshi batsman in Tamim Iqbal who was found scoring 151 runs which was 8 more than what a double decade old Sachin Tendulkar could do in the first innings that India played. This was 40 runs more than what Rahul Dravid - who has been playing test cricket for almost one and a half decade could do. His injury need not guarantee that he would have gone on to score even more, had that not been the case. That can also be considered to be another feat by a Bangladeshi bowler when he could get a great batsman injured. Finally. it would no doubt that the entire day belonged to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh fail to average 4 an over

Well it is all the more expected that India would surely win the test against Bangladesh no matter what the initial performance in the early days of the test match had to say. The only question whose answer had to be awaited until the end of the 5th day was: By how many runs or wicket would India win the match and conversely speaking, by how many runs or wickets would Bangladesh lose? And, the answer to this question was India won the match by 113 runs or Bangladesh lost the match by 113 runs. And, Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the man of the match.

But, still, victory didn't come so easy for team India, who struggled to get every Bangladeshi batsmen out after he threatened to have been set well and ready for the Indian challenge. Bangladesh did well to pile up a total which was just more than 300 runs which was less compared to the total of 413 that they needed to win the match but more compared to what was expected out of them. Once again, the Bangladeshi opener scored a half century and there was a Bangladeshi batsman who score century for his team. This was more than enough for them to draw some appreciation.

No one might congratulate Sachin Tendulkar for not only scoring yet another century in test cricket but also pulling his team yet another time from the jaws of a draw, against Bangladesh which would be as good as a loss for any team barring West Indies in today's cricket. Similarly, even Zaheer Khan doesn't deserve any sort of applause for doing the same with the ball what Sachin Tendulkar managed with the bat for, the caliber that Bangladesh stands in today's cricketing world is well in front. It was not Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant hundred but it was a below par performance from the rest of the Indian batsmen.

So was the case regarding India's bowling where Sreesanth had no share of wickets. If in the second innings of India's batting, Amit Mishra's score was more than Dravid's and Sachin's, Virender Sehwag's bowling performance was better than Sreesanth's when Sehwag was able to pick up on wicket when he got the opener - Tamim Iqbal out after he score 52 runs and was threatening to take advantage of India underestimating his team. That was an important wicket as was Amit Mishra's innings that saw India having a 2^nd wicket partnership of 98 runs in the 2^nd innings with Gautam Gambhir.

Is this all India can do?

Well at the end of the third day's play, no doubt that the Indian openers started their batting in the second innings by losing just one wicket putting up a score of 122 on the board. But, at the same time they also allowed Bangladesh to score runs at will when despite at the end of day 2 being 3 down with 59 on board eventually ended their first innings total scoring 242 runs which was just 1 runs less than what the Indians could. And, I guess despite his past heroics, Sehwag should be once again reminded that he is playing test cricket and not the limited overs edition.

Remaining at the crease for a longer duration is as important as scoring runs. And so is putting up partnerships which can at most times prove as a weapon to win matches. But, similar to that in the first innings, where Sehwag got out after scoring a quickfire 52 from 51 balls, this time as well, Sehwag score a decent score of 45 from 58 balls. And, following that a nightwatchman in Amit Mishra has taken to the crease. May be Dhoni is doing all these only because India is sure to win this game. I wish this had been against any other team which gives India a run for their position in tests.

After 4 quick wickets in the Bangladeshi innings, it was all Bangladesh's show with Mahmudullah scoring 69 runs in the total of 242 which they eventually ended their first innings total. Second on the list would be Mushfiqur Rahim who scored 44 runs. And much to anyone's surprise, the two batsmen mentioned above came in at positions 7 and 8 and still could not be contained by the Indian bowlers that had the likes of Zaheer Khan and co. This can be analyzed in two ways. One, that the Indian batsmen didn't not bat to their full potential and two, the Bangladeshi batsmen fought with their full strength despite ending the previous day at 59/3.

Even on the previous day, when Bangladesh lost 3 wickets for a score of 59 runs, it was not before openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes scored 31 and 23 respectively and had scored 11 boundaries between them. Bangladesh were at one stage on the third day's play found reeling at 98 runs for the loss of 6 wickets which then saw the remaining four tail-end and lower middle order batsmen piling up another 144 runs on the board against India who are now rated as the number one team in test cricket. This was a bit of underestimation from the Indians' point of view with more of improvement for the Bangladeshi side.