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Old January 23, 2005, 09:09 PM
Sham Sham is offline
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Join Date: October 15, 2002
Location: London, UK
Posts: 3,070

Well, the result will depend on how or batsmen bat, regardless of whether we defend a total or chase one.

The problem with our batsmen in one day cricket is that they don't know how to pace an innings. In test cricket, atleast for Bangladesh, the objective is simple: don't get out. So every over that our batters negotiate without losing a wicket is a successful over. However, with ODIs, things are made more complicated by having to also score runs at a decent rate. Something our batsmen haven't come to terms with yet.

In my opinion, the problem lies with our batters' inability to rotate the strike. We just don't take enough singles. No matter at what stage the game is in, we always need to look to take singles. Its even more important in the middle overs. For us however, when the boundries dry up, our run rate falls to about 2 an over, which is unacceptable in an ODI.

Between the 15th and the 40th overs, our batsmen need to look to take a minimum of four singles every over. Its not that complicated. With mid-off and mid-on back, all they need to do is play straight past the bowler and run the singles. Can't play a safer shot than that, especially to the spinners. If they can get 4 singles every over for those 25 overs, and score a 4 every 4 or 5 overs, which they will obviously do, they will maintain a healthy 4.5 to 5 run rate through those middle overs.

So say somewhere between 65-75 in the first 15, about 115-120 in the middle 25 and we'll have scored around 185-190 in 40 overs, a good platform to go on and get a 250+ score. Also, when you take a lot of singles, you put pressure on the bowlers and the fielders, and you also don't have to get adventurous to score runs, making wicket preservation easier as well. We get ourselves into a hole by not taking the singles, and then we get out when we try to improve the run rate by playing stupid shots.
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