Freddie

[Sham]

Flintoff worries me! We know that Trescothick and Thorpe will do well, both left-handers and wonderful players of spin. We know Hoggard will be accurate and Giles will wear our patience. But Flintoff, I don't think we fully appreciate what he is capable of! With both bat and ball, he has the ability to take the game away from us very quickly. If I were part of the Bangladeshi think-tank, I would think long and hard and come up with some sort of strategy to contain Flintoff.

[chinaman]

Cool off Sham.
He is just another good player who could break the bat to the max. Like any other hard hitter and agricultural shot player, he is always vulnerable to good yorkers. Moreover, Rafiq is quite capable of lurking him out of the crease. Believe it or not, even Sujon's (if he plays!) deceptive bowling angles (notice the change in the distance between his head and the bowling arm from ball to ball?) might confuse him.

I think piling up a huge score against them is the way to go.

[Sham]

No doubt in my mind about that.

I seriously hope you are right Chinaman. Before the South Africa series, even I used to think of Flintoff as just another good player, a bit of a slogger really. But he really really impressed me against the South Africans. Also, his bowling will give us problems. He bowls well when he is given responsibility, like he did in India when he was made to open the bowling. He took 2 for 42 and 4 for 50 the two times he opened, and that was against the Indian batting no less. In Bangladesh, he will be one of the front-line seamers again, he might even be asked to open the bowling.

Anyway, I am not trying to freak myself or anyone else out. Just thinking a lot about the upcoming series and the forms that our problems will come in.

[Mridul]

we lost to youhana last time....this time its Flintoff