Bangladesh's lowest score vs WI in BD
F Waliullah

After the good bowling performance in the first one day international match in Chittagong, it was time to look at Bangladesh's batting performance. But West Indies skipper Ridley Jacobs won the toss and elected to bat first. So, it was time for Bangladesh to bowl first again.

Monju did well with the ball again and Tapash did better by taking the wicket of Wavell Hinds in his first over. Bangladesh line up was always short of a specialist fifth bowler and Khaled Mashud did well to find an occassional Atahar like seamer in Ehsanul Haque. Mohammad Rafique came in at this match as the first spinner instead of Naimur and surprise surprise, Naimur gave width to most of his balls right from the start. Bangladesh former coach has remembered Rafique well for his batting, but later in the innings, he also remembered and have noticed it too that Rafique hasn't changed much - he is still a fastish spinner rather than a slow spinner on slow wickets. It was also surprising to see that captain Khaled Mashud has not even tried with bowler Ashraful. Is he really that severe in
punishment to his bowlers? If this continues, we might see him not to call Naimur Rahman to bowl in the third one dayer today at all.

After the poor performance of Al Shahriar, it is quite evident that his place in the world cup final squad comes into a question. But will the media back him up if he is really not chosen like they did in case of Minhazul Abedin? Well, we will just have to wait and see.

Ehsanul Haque seem to be a good opening batsman on low and slow track of Dhaka, until he plays a bad shot. If he can convert his 9 run maiden appearance in one day international matches into a fifty today, then he could very well force the selectors to get him into the world cup final squad of fifteen. With his good bowling performance being a part timer, it is a great opportunity for him.

Mohammad Ashraful batted with a straight bat in the 2nd match unlike the 1st ODI. Whether he can do that consistently today as well as in the coming test matches, that is the question now. Either way, he is already in the world cup squad with his two good knocks - unless he scores a golden duck today in the 3rd one day match and in the test matches. In addition, if he can bat like the way he did, he will be the top scorer frequently for Bangladesh in one day cricket also.

Habibul Bashar looked disappointed when he was bowled in his very first ball getting a really good yorker. Whether he can take the opportunity for a rest today and capitalize on this, it is entirely upto him. But his place in the world cup squad is not as suspicious as Al Shahriar's.

Sanwar Hossain really need to take more responisbility than he has already taken now that Habibul Bashar is not as consistent as everybody would have liked to see and he should also be more consistent. Unless he does that, he could very well be dropped from the 11-man team to make way for Aminul Islam in the future matches.

Alok Kapali plays spinners well, but he is still short of knowledge on playing international class leg spinners. He was also not as consistent and responsible as his previous knocks. But given his recent one day and test record, one under twenty score is termed good enough since he has been scoring twenties consistently. But with his bowling performance being in question, does he really deserve a chance to keep his place in the future one day team?

Khaled Mashud was consistent and responsible as ever. If he could just build up some confidence in his batting, then he could also be a specialist middle order batsman someday and would not let us feel that we are missing some highly talented batsman like Habibul Bashar and Al Shahriar.

Naimur Rahman is really always a batsman who can bowl a bit. It is unfortunate that he does not have fifties and the temperament to get to the fifties because he is such a free stroke maker, that in the absence of Aminul Islam and Akram Khan, he should have been our main batsman at the middle order.

Overall, we are really not playing good cricket to get our confidence up before the world cup. With the good news of Gordon Greenidge may be coming up as the Bangaldesh coach all over again, we can see some hope of playing better cricket in the world cup.

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