Match Thread: Bangladesh vs England, 2nd Test, at Dhaka (SBNS), 20-24 March 2010

[deshifan]

What I understand is if we can post 400 runs in each innings, we aren't gonna lose. Win seems a far-fetched dream at this point. My wishes are always with the tigers.

[Rabz]

Awwww.Nice work Purna.
Didnt realise you've opened the match thread.
All the best of luck to you and to the boys.

May the innocence of a little girl bring luck and prosperity to our team.

[al-Sagar]

Originally Posted by deshifan
What I understand is if we can post 400 runs in each innings, we aren't gonna lose. Win seems a far-fetched dream at this point. My wishes are always with the tigers.

we should target batting 5 sessions each innings

[Biggles]

The only way I see Bangladesh getting any kind of result is by batting first . This firstly puts pressure on England if you score over 300 and they have been out in the heat. Secondly it means that you will be facing Swann on a less worn track . I know some of you are amazed that Swann did so much damage but for me he spun the ball more than any of the Bangladesh spinners which is worrrying for you guys. I reckon it will be a good test if you bat first if not I reckon it will be similar to Chittagong.

[Beamer]

Traditionally the BD spinners are not big turners. They instead get wkts with variations in length, or as Rafiq used to do better than any, with armers. The biggest turner of the ball didn't play in CTG. I hope they bring in Enam for Razzak.

I was very very impressed with Swann. World Class.

[bdtiger]

Originally Posted by Biggles
The only way I see Bangladesh getting any kind of result is by batting first . This firstly puts pressure on England if you score over 300 and they have been out in the heat. Secondly it means that you will be facing Swann on a less worn track . I know some of you are amazed that Swann did so much damage but for me he spun the ball more than any of the Bangladesh spinners which is worrrying for you guys. I reckon it will be a good test if you bat first if not I reckon it will be similar to Chittagong.

I hope the English will take the challenge. Eventhough they win the toss allow Bangladesh to bat. And lets see what happens then...

[riankhan]

Originally Posted by Raynman
I believe the terms you are looking for are Ash-kissers and Ash-kickers.

Anyhoo, here's a premature toast to our first win of 2010. Thats right, I'm calling the 2nd test ours. Cheers

Why the hell we cant make a spinner's friendly wicket?
We need a true spinning wicket.....trueeeeeeee spinningggggggg wicketttttttt

Ball will turn from the 1st/2nd day...n.....bang bang.....English dead bodies all around!

[Biggles]

I have seen him play a couple of times and he has always impressed me. I just think he needs a 6 months break from the game . I think in any sport some players get mentally tired or stale. Mark my word if they leave Ashraful out for 5/6 months you will see a different player when he comes back in. I think Shakib going to Worcester for a bit will improve his game. They have a good player in solanki and if he can pick up some tips and expirience then it can't harm .

[sadhat]

who is 8. Johurul Islam?

[sadhat]

My Prediction {My guts feelings}:

This time Skakib will lose the toss, and we will be bowling. Well if he wins again, he will choose to bat first, but this time, wicket will give something to bowler. Either way, we will be in trouble.

[smashyboy]

Originally Posted by view360
Born winner ? Winning habit ? Even Trumps cards ? It reminds me of various Bangla newspaper articles written by students turned part time journalists.
We no longer have to depend on inept BD journalists for information thanks to modern technology and a little bit of numeracy. Let us see here what the stats have to say about your Ashraful's winning habit Source Cricinfo StatsGuru
Let us have an abstract below :
BD won 3 test mathes out of 53 where Ashraful played and that makes the winning ratio 5.66% .
His highest score in those 3 winning test matches was 22 with a batting average of 10.83 . I have no further comment.

[auntu]

Will there be any change in the line up?

Like:

-Razzak OUT Enam IN
-Aftab OUT Jahir IN
-Shahadat OUT Shafiul IN.

[Bond]

Originally Posted by riankhan
1st group: Regular follower of BD cricket = Ash "Hater"
2nd group: Random follower = Ash "Better"

Though I should not use "Hater", but u n me belong to the first group. But most of our countrymen belong to other one!

Originally Posted by Raynman
I believe the terms you are looking for are Ash-kissers and Ash-kickers.

Anyhoo, here's a premature toast to our first win of 2010. Thats right, I'm calling the 2nd test ours. Cheers

Why are you two cyber bullying me?
Don't i have the right to be Ashraful's fan?
If a child's father thought he was a failure and always gave negative motivation what will happen to him, Ashraful is going lean path of form, instead of looking down and make fun why not support him. He's human being, he'll remember the true fans who stick together during hard time.

[Fazal]

Originally Posted by sadhat
My Prediction {My guts feelings}:

This time Skakib will lose the toss, and we will be bowling. Well if he wins again, he will choose to bat first, but this time, wicket will give something to bowler. Either way, we will be in trouble.

My gut is also filling due to tension thinking about this scenario. Creating pressure, I need to go...

[kalpurush]

Originally Posted by auntu
Will there be any change in the line up?

Like:

-Razzak OUT Enam IN
-Aftab OUT Jahir IN
-Shahadat OUT Shafiul IN.

Bring it on baby bring it on...
Here comes our Test victory in Mirpur against E8!

Go Tigers Go Bangladesh

[Nafi]

BD havent got many experienced reliable test bowlers.

Shahadat only performs once in a blue moon in tests. This guy get a 6-26 against south africa, then has horrible figures the next six tests, i.e 1-100, then bursts again with another fantastic spell, like his five wicket haul to bowl India out for ~250

Mortaza has been an okay test bowler, but he is not even match fit/available. And is only great in tests, when he is bowling at full pace (85-90mph) to make use of his ability to get movement off the seam.

Shafiul and Rubel are still very new and unexperienced

For the spinners, whom none are wrist spinners.

Razzak is not suitable for tests
Riyad and Naeem are actually part timers, and not even specialists, though they are getting better.
Shakib is our only reliable test bowler, and alongside being a premier batsmen and captain, the burden is huge amount.

Short term solutions for the bowling front, we just need one of the other all-rounder spinners to evolve from support roles to attacking roles, like Shakib had in recent times.

And for shahadat to bloody regain form, for mashrafe to regain fitness, and for a young seamer eg (shafiul/Rubel/robin) to gain confidence and have a breakthrough.

We also could use an amazing wrist spinner, but then again every country wants a reincarnation of Shane Warne. To be frank there isnt a test class wrist spinner playing for any test team atm.

[bura]

Originally Posted by Bond
Mission Impossible. Ashraful is our Tom Cruise.

muahahaha

[bura]

Originally Posted by Bond
Why are you two cyber bullying me?
Don't i have the right to be Ashraful's fan?
If a child's father thought he was a failure and always gave negative motivation what will happen to him, Ashraful is going lean path of form, instead of looking down and make fun why not support him. He's human being, he'll remember the true fans who stick together during hard time.

nobody is bullying you. All they are asking is to get your logic straight. If you say Ash should be included better come up with stat/data/logic not emotion.

We all want performers. NAT team is not a practice ground where you want to get your form back.

[bura]

Originally Posted by auntu
Will there be any change in the line up?

Like:

-Razzak OUT Enam IN
-Aftab OUT Jahir IN
-Shahadat OUT Shafiul IN.

agree! may be Shfi for Rubel not Shahadat.

[Rifat]

Purna Apu, good stuff and may Allah help your, our and my cause...

[Jaybaba]

A good assessment of Bangladesh cricket: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog...-slow-progress

Everyone understands the importance of domestic cricket infrastructure and sporting wickets. Only BCB does not seem to care.

[chol_bd123]

Originally Posted by sadhat
My Prediction {My guts feelings}:

This time Skakib will lose the toss, and we will be bowling. Well if he wins again, he will choose to bat first, but this time, wicket will give something to bowler. Either way, we will be in trouble.

thats exactly what i have been thinking.

[kalpurush]

Originally Posted by chol_bd123
thats exactly what i have been thinking.

Then think a bit positive please...^^^

[kalpurush]

Originally Posted by Jaybaba
A good assessment of Bangladesh cricket: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog...-slow-progress

Everyone understands the importance of domestic cricket infrastructure and sporting wickets. Only BCB does not seem to care.

Thank you ...
Bangladesh have need for speed after a decade of slow progress

Critics claim Bangladesh should not be a Test nation, but with the right infrastructure they will develop the bowlers to compete


Junaid Siddique's century against England was evidence of Bangladesh's progress, but now they need to improve their bowling. Photograph: ANDREW BIRAJ/REUTERS

If some of the pundits had their way it would be a long time before England toured Bangladesh again. There have been plenty of suggestions that Bangladesh, beaten by 181 runs, should be demoted from Test cricket, either down to a second tier of nations or out of the cycle altogether. It is a viewpoint that I would question.
Poor as Bangladesh were in patches, England still needed to play proper cricket to beat them. We saw in this match that Bangladesh are improving as a side. If you plotted a graph of their progress since they came into Test cricket, the line would be curving steadily upwards. Junaid Siddique's 106 in the second innings made him the fifth Bangladeshi batsman to score a Test century since 1 January. That is as many centuries in the last two and a half months as the team managed in the previous four years.
It has been 10 years since Bangladesh made their Test debut. In that time they have played 65 matches and won three of them. Critics have short memories. That record is in line with the trend for emerging Test nations. In their first 10 years of Test cricket, between 1982 and 1992, Sri Lanka played 37 Tests, and won two. In New Zealand's first decade they played 14 times without winning once (and took 45 matches to do so). No doubt there were people who wanted to kick those teams out of Test cricket then, too.
Where Bangladesh's record does differ is in the number of draws they have secured, only six, as opposed to Sri Lanka's 16. Sri Lanka were lucky in that they went on to discover Muttiah Muralitharan and were able to build a bowling attack around him. In the absence of such a star spinner, Bangladesh's big difficulty is fast bowling. There are two sides to the problem – their batsmen are not comfortable facing it, and their bowlers are not capable of delivering it. The first issue can be fixed, but the second is tougher to solve.
The weaknesses of their top order against fast bowling were clear in the first innings of this Test in Chittagong. Both Siddique and Imrul Kayes were bounced out. I know from my own playing days with Zimbabwe just how difficult it is as a batsman in a developing team to deal with the step up in pace that occurs when you play a top nation. It is a real shock to the system to come out of a net or a first‑class game where the bowling has been at 130kph to face a barrage in a Test match at 140kph.
That extra 10kph may not seem much on paper, but imagine it as the difference between a spin bowler's regular delivery and his arm-ball. The change in pace is similarly slight but very effective. In Zimbabwe we actually recruited two South African baseball pitchers to come into the nets and throw at us as fast as they could from 19 yards, to help us adapt to the pace of top-level cricket. At first we could hardly get the bat on the ball, but over time we became accustomed to the increased speed. Until Bangladesh can find some quicks of their own for their batsmen to practise against, they may need to resort to more unnatural methods like that one.
Developing that bowling talent is a tough task. Even India have faltered because they do not have a consistent squad of pace bowlers who can really intimidate the opposition. Bangladesh face similar difficulties. Between the flat wickets and the heat and humidity of the conditions, not many young players are going to want to run up and bowl at 140kph for any period of time. One way forward would be to develop wickets that offer more encouragement for seam bowlers.
But the bedrock for future development is what is happening underneath Test cricket. I would want to visit and inspect Bangladesh's domestic set-up before passing judgment, but wherever you are in the world strong first‑class cricket is absolutely crucial for Test success. You can't pluck players from a weak domestic league and expect them to make a quick transition to the top level. This also takes time. Bangladesh have had 10 years to work on their domestic structure. England have had more than 100, and still not got it right.
Bangladesh have a part to play in the modern game. Their huge cricketing population is a resource that the sport should not waste. If you suddenly split Test cricket into two divisions then that interest will wane. England's visit will stimulate enthusiasm in a way that playing Ireland and Zimbabwe never would. The mismatches, we are told, are doing nothing for the health of Test cricket, but what about the longer-term development of the sport? Cricket would only benefit from Bangladesh getting better.

[beshideshi]

Bond brother, I am a huge Ashraful fan, but time has come for him to take a break, collect himself and get back to his usual self. Every player has these horrible patches, where runs look like something from planet mars and beyond reach. Shane Watson, Marcus North, Ravi Bopara, V. Solanki, G. Hick, S. Ganguly and almost everyone had these patches. I am sure Ash will bounce back, our top order really needs a full firing Ash.