Back to the basics please - Partnership

[Tigers_eye]

I dislike Twenty/20. What is doing to our cricket (BD). This playing natural game (dhum dharakka) will not see us winning test for sure (just my belief). The notion of which ball to leave and which ball to hit is all good and dandy but that has to be learnt some where else and not in test cricket arena. These boys already should know that by now. The temptation of clearing the field and show up the opponent bowler or being the man is too great for our young cricketers. The Aftab we saw in England 2005 is no where to found now. Ash, Mash, Shakib's rash shots has no explanation. Very similar to Nafis Iqbal's against the flow play. Immatured plays can be labeled only as mental flaws. Weak in understanding the test game.

I hope and pray Tamim - Junaid and who ever plays for BD must understand that test cricket is played in partnerships. Scoring is vital but not the most important part because of the five day limit. Batsman has plenty of time to pick and chose the bad bad ball. In this flat home bed if BD batsmen can't get multiple 100 partnerships against SA then I would say the coaching staff is pressing the wrong buttons.

In previous 34 innings we only managed six 100 partnerships. Pathetic to say the least.

Partners	Wkt	Runs	In	Out	Inns	Opposition	Ground	Start Date
Junaid Siddique, Tamim Iqbal	1	161	0/0	1/161	3	v New Zealand	Dunedin	4-Jan-08
Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim	6	191	5/78	6/269	3	v Sri Lanka	Colombo (PSS)	3-Jul-07
Habibul Bashar, Shahriar Nafees	2	102	1/25	2/127	3	v Australia	Chittagong (CDS)	16-Apr-06
Habibul Bashar, Shahriar Nafees	2	187	1/51	2/238	1	v Australia	Fatullah	9-Apr-06
Javed Omar, Nafees Iqbal	1	133	0/0	1/133	4	v Zimbabwe	Dhaka	14-Jan-05
Habibul Bashar, Rajin Saleh	4	119	3/153	4/272	1	v Zimbabwe	Chittagong (MAA)	6-Jan-05

Bangladesh needs to go back to the basics and make this a priority for the batsmen. May be even put up rewards. Motivate the players a little. Play as a team not as an individual. Help each other out there when the going gets tough in the middle.

I would like to see three 100+ partnership in the upcoming series againts SA. The way they achieve that is in increment of 20 or 25. Small small steps. Keep chopping like the Rutgars Scarlet Knights. Doesn't matter if Nell, Morkel, Langevedt or Steyn is firing from all angles. These are just names. Our boys have defended better opposition in harsher conditions. Go BD go!! Make us proud.

[Tigers_eye]

In comparison to the past BD teams:

2004 we had 4 100+ partnerships.
2003 we had 7 100+ partnerships.
2001 we had 4 100+ partnerships.

You can find these in BC stats.

[Fazal]

So the sequence is 4 ...7...4...2...2....1....1 (2008) ?

So we are done for this year? No more century partnership for the rest of the year?

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by Fazal
So the sequence is 4 ...7...4...2...2....1....1 (2008) ?

So we are done for this year? No more century partnership for the rest of the year?

Fazal bhai why not project 2009 and 2010 also. Very simple, done for next three years.
2...2...1...1...0...0

[Tigers_eye]

Year	Tests	100 Partnership	50 Partnership	W	L	D
2008	2	1			2
2007	5	1	8		4	1
2006	4	2	12		4
2005	6	2	14	1	4	1
2004	8	4	15		6	2
2003	9	7	11		9
2002	8		13		8
2001	8	4	10		7	1
2000	1		3		1

[akabir77]

very true

[Ishtylish cricketer]

Lack of long partnership always kill us. I definitely think our batting now more than ever lacks teeth. Looking at the partnerships I remembered that test against Australia when Bd made 400 plus with SN making a century. Australia ended up winning it but had to chase a decent target. I think Raffique bowled really well that game. Good old days. Will we ever get back to that?

[Fazal]

Originally Posted by Ishtylish cricketer
Lack of long partnership always kill us. I definitely think our batting now more than ever lacks teeth.

I agree.. now basically our team is filled up with three types of players:
1. Players who already lost their teeth.
2. Players who never had their teeth and its too late to have a teeth
3. Players who are too young to have a teeth yet.

[Murad]

so that means the whole team has no teeths.....

eibar bujhlam keno amra valo partnership dekhina....


thanku thanku fazal bhai..

[al-Sagar]

i expect a u-turn from the SA series when the SIDDONS EFFECT will slowly and gradualy start to affect

[Beamer]

Good job T_E. Its obvious that the team is in a rebuilding phase. Sooner the clean up effort is done the better in my mind. We won't get any more mileage out of the old cars and its time do away with all of them. They won't help us win any games right now. We should be prepared to lose for a while, but at least with young players, so they can learn ( hopefully ) from their mistakes and know how to win. At least, the opening pair look solid for a starter, and we must find a no.3 and find out if Aftab can handle the no.6 in tests. Partnerships are key for any innings. Its time for Ashraful to take over the mantle of building partnerships with fellow batsmen a la Bashar of old, who can be found in almost all major partnerships of the past. No.6-7 must also learn how to play with tail just as Pilot did.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Beamer
Good job T_E. Its obvious that the team is in a rebuilding phase. Sooner the clean up effort is done the better in my mind. We won't get any more mileage out of the old cars and its time do away with all of them. They won't help us win any games right now. We should be prepared to lose for a while, but at least with young players, so they can learn ( hopefully ) from their mistakes and know how to win. At least, the opening pair look solid for a starter, and we must find a no.3 and find out if Aftab can handle the no.6 in tests. Partnerships are key for any innings. Its time for Ashraful to take over the mantle of building partnerships with fellow batsmen a la Bashar of old, who can be found in almost all major partnerships of the past. No.6-7 must also learn how to play with tail just as Pilot did.

i am hopeful of all except the last part.

openers: tamim and junaid are a revelation. i expect them to come up with big parternships on a regular basis unlike the hannan/JO era. i especially expect them to be home track bullies.

middle order: i am confident that ash will slowly become great. key word slowly. what makes it more difficult is the pressure of the batting relying so much on him. if the other guys consistently score runs, it will make the job easier for him. only thing is will he become complacent. aftab i hope can become a decent #6, just give him a couple years. rahim is the real deal, he is not an ashraful, but a golden keeper he is. we need a good number 3, can rajin fit that role?

the tail: this is much weaker than the days when pilot, rafique, and company would score anywhere from 40-60% of runs taking us from 55-5s to the 200 all outs. our tail needs to get better. or better yet the top order needs to do their job.

bowlers: they are as good as they are gonna be.

[Beamer]

To answer that question about Rajin. No. He doesn't have the quality nor the attacking intent or fortitude to be a no.3. He could be a no.5, but SN is there at the moment, who is a better option in my mind. I do hope you are right about Aftab. It will be a complete waste of talent if he just melts away. That will be a bigger tragedy than Kapali.

[Ishtylish cricketer]

Originally Posted by Fazal
I agree.. now basically our team is filled up with three types of players:
1. Players who already lost their teeth.
2. Players who never had their teeth and its too late to have a teeth
3. Players who are too young to have a teeth yet.

Haha. Funny stuff.

[Tintin]

The good days of century stands ended when HB began fading away. TE's table modified (added a column for Ash just to show how different his stats are) :

Year	Tests	100 Partnership	100 Partnerships involving HB	100 Partnerships involving MA
2008	2	1	0	0
2007	5	1	0	1
2006	4	2	2	0
2005	6	2	1	0
2004	8	4	2	2
2003	9	7	6	1
2002	8	0	0	0
2001	8	4	3	1
2000	1	0	0	0
Total	51	21	14	5

[Tigers_eye]

Thank you Tintin.
Just a minor error. HB has total of 14. Matters very little though.

Players	2007 and 2008	Between 1/1/05 and 12/31/06	Before 1/1/05
Mohammad Ashraful	1		4
Mushfiqur Rahim	1
Shahriar Nafees		2
Junaid Siddique	1
Tamim Iqbal	1
Habibul Bashar		3	11
Javed Omar		1	5
Nafees Iqbal		1
Rajin Saleh		1	2
Manjural Islam Rana			1
Hannan Sharkar			3
Mehrab Hossain Sr.			1
Aftab Ahmed			1

Among all these players only the ones who have age on their side have a better chance for the future. They should be part of patching plan until those who are better can take up the cause.

The last column matters very little at this point of BD cricket. (before 1/1/05)

The obvious ones needs to be nurtured more. The first five on the Table. They have been there already. They can do it again. Then comes the second group of players.

1) Aftab
2) Rajin
3) Nafees Iqbal

BCB can not ignore these three. Nor should Siddons unless Shakib and others steps it up another notch.

For the oldies, thank you so very much to making us smile. HB, Hannan, Mehrab, JO. Time to move on. I miss Rana so much.

One thing to notice is we never had a 100 run partnership after the 5th wicket stand in any of our innings.

[Miraz]

Tintin your table says it all about our Test performance. We had a performer in Bashar who isn't performing anymore and we are heading nowhere!!!

[akabir77]

I have one question. why do we have to get rid of the old cars? WHy can't the new cars show what they r made of and demand a position in my garage? why do we have to take a chance thinking this might last longer then my old one and find out quickly that this come with only 50,000 miles warranty and very quickly i have to look for another new car and the loop goes on...

SO i think let the old cars drive even if it doesn't start right a way and need a push now and then. and let the new cars come up with their own knowledge and built so that when i replace them with my old beat up car it will also drive long.

But if he just go blind with the new shine and color and try to change our beatup car in the end we will have First no car left in the dealer ship and two our garage will be empty. and soon the neighbors will start saying the have empty garage so make him close his garage once for all....

Its better to have patience and wait for it and let it demand a place rather then trying to guess and see which one will work

[Beamer]

I would rather shop around for a lot of different new cars knowing they are all new, though not of same quality. If you are a good driver/mechanic, you would know which one to select after test driving them and go with the one that you think suits your need and style. Old cars can be patched up and kept in the garage, but, given the choice and means, anyone would replace the old car and get a new one. Don't confuse a vintage Bentley with an old Chevy though.

[Tigers_eye]

I see basic doesn't do any good for us.

How about Cobol? No.

C anyone? C++? Java? Java is not a language. Is it? SQL is the way to go.

Seriously, all goes to deaf ears. When shall these "nadan" boys grow up?

[PoorFan]

'Basic' appears to this 'nadan' as 'machine language' ... you know how those code looks after compile for execution. Seems like they all understand 'source code', but at the time of 'execution' ... they see only 'unreadable binary codes' as each of their 'source code' get compiled and linked ( as team strategy ) as a 'executable load module'. Ohh well, did I make sense?

[One World]

Basic or C++, its hardware malfunction.

Either the device has wared badly with time(HB) or the driver was not installed properly (Ash, Aftab, Mash) or few very quality pieces manufactured to last longer (Rafique).
Dont forget the "Made in China"'s (Rahim etc.).

[Tigers_eye]

One day games need partnerships too.

In the latest Pakistan series we got beaten comprehensively.

	150+ Partnership	100 partnership	50 partnership	Average partnership
Bangladesh			6 (97, 90, 75, 59, 57)	21.87
Pakistan	2 (151, 179)	1 (145)	6 (97, 82, 80, 73, 68, 52)	40.33

Coach put some emphasis on partnership also.

[WarWolf]

Very good thread and topic. Mijan bhai, I am afraid your whole khatuni will become ash as there's no one among the players, the team management or board management who can understand it....

Some times I feel if the board and the selection board is formed by the BC members, we would get the best result.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by WarWolf
Very good thread and topic. Mijan bhai, I am afraid your whole khatuni will become ash as there's no one among the players, the team management or board management who can understand it....

Some times I feel if the board and the selection board is formed by the BC members, we would get the best result.

I have faith. If I, a non-national player can think of all this, the Management who were attached with the game all their life should know better. If not, I pray they visit BC.