by Razab Q. Chowdhury
A few BanglaCricket authors have already covered this day. They have talked
about the catching, the potential to win, etc. However, there are still some
cricketing aspects which I thought might interest the readers. These I will
attempt to jot down.
Bangladesh Bowling
- Bangladesh is still not mentally ready to "grasp" victory - an
ailment that is endemic amongst teams that are mired in a losing streak. Yesterday,
the last point I had made was how all aspects of the BD game rarely clicked
together, and since the team had batted so well, I was apprehensive about
the bowling. Turns out it was the fielding I should have fretted about. Enough
has been written and said on the 8-9 dropped catches. The only addition I'll
make is at least 6 of them, on any other day, Bangladesh safely pouches so
it wasn't technique that let the team down, rather nerves.
- Move over Mashrafee, BD pace attach has a new enforcer and he goes by Baishya,
Tapash Baishya. I absolutely loved his treatment of Sarwan. Be it pinging
the ball to the keeper just missing the batsmen, the stare downs and the clever,
big hearted, dismissal. Next time Sarwan will think twice about doing his
glares and what not. Tapash has also increased his pace. I observed a 86 MPH
max and he bowled in the 80-81 range easily. Also got some late swing.
- Speaking of late swing, Tareq has some potential in that department. But
he's still a few years away from being a Test bowler. Not yet capable of sustaining
pressure on the batsmen, the run-up looks a tad deliberate, and he doesn't
quite follow through after delivery (which would generate additional pace).
He has the potential to bowl in the mid 80s eventually.
- Both Tapash and Tareq need to work on their seam position. In general they
were scrambling the seam all over the place. Good pacers bowl with the seam
very upright, and that's what the two T's need to do. They have the ability
to move the ball already so seam position would make them pretty dangerous.
The only seamer on display who had the seam position right was Mushfiq Babu.
- Speaking of Babu - his dismissal of Lara was a function of his quick arm
action. Ala Gillespie, he keeps the seam upright and the batsmen are not able
to read his hand right away. Therefore, in spite of his military medium 74-77
MPH, he will continue to get 1-2 wickets on this level. He does need to become
more of a thinking cricketer though. At times he appeared to be bowling without
a plan. Tapash Baishya is a good example of what intelligent bowling can accomplish.
- Luck is finally deserting us in this match. Asides from the catches, we
had one Tareq ball brush the off-stick and still not dismiss Gayle, and at
least one very good LBW shout turned down. Then the overnight lack of rain
meant that the outfield was faster than when BD had batted. Oh well, it's
fair I suppose.
- Why was Ashraful not bowled at all?
- Wonderful pressure dismissal of Dwayne Smith. We need more of those with
our limited bowling resources.
- Rafique was not as aggressive as I thought he would have been. It seems,
as the Prothom-alo interview indicates, he was just content to do "tight"
bowling whereas with a 400+ lead for the first time to bowl to, I anticipated
more flight. Still he could be the trump card.
- Just one more thought - our opening bowlers bowled quite a few well directed
bouncers. So much for the "pitch"
Windies Batting
When 3-4 batsmen get to 30s, 40s or 50s and gets dismissed while chasing a
large total, that tells you that discipline is somewhat lacking. When one considers
all those drops, that lack of discipline becomes even more evident.
The power these Windies batsmen possess makes one envious.
[Note: a family illness forced me to miss a fair amount of the day's action,
therefore I apologize in advance if I have missed anything]
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