Cricket Tri-series in Bangladesh

   -Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

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It seems Bangladesh that hosted the tri series in Dhaka along with Sri Lanka and India has had good practice to gauge the levels of both neighbors in cricket. Right from the day one BD was never a threat to SL and India and they enjoyed their mathces. And it is not surprising at all. Although Bangladesh knew all its weaknesses even before the series stated and well prepared for the eventual defeat as one of the weakest international cricket teams, both India and Sri Lanka really took BD very seriously to restrict their runs and hence Bangladesh could not win any match in this tri-series so far.

Last week in fact Bangadeshi boys did trouble the Indians to make them feverish and at one point BD were going to win it, but finally they could not stop the Indian batsmen from kidnapping the win form BD. Bangladesh will be happy to end with a total of 247/6 in their 50 overs. Bangladesh will be extremely happy with the way they've recovered to 247 after those two partnerships towards the end. India leaked 95 off the last ten overs, but they were effective in the beginning. But this total may not be enough to seriously challenge India- unless they sensibly bowl the Indians and cripple the team right at the beginning. .  

They were given a couple of early blows but they recovered a bit, India struck back reducing them to 67/4 but they still came back to 95/5. The skipper departed just at the beginning of the Batting Power play but the later carried on. Two sets of partnerships heralded a strong come back by BD, although the net result does not look enough. Shakib (85) and Mahmudullah (64*) got together, played sensibly and stitched a brilliant 106-run stand for the 6th wicket, while Mahmudullah added another 46 runs along with N.Islam (22*) to boost their total of 247. The second half made the difference.

After a near collapse in the middle when it appeared the hosts would have to be contented with just 100 plus runs, Bangladesh came back to the game in the last twenty overs. The Indian opponents on the field made things worse for the hosts as they had half their side back in the hut by the 24th over. Indian bowlers continued the good run from their previous match against Sri Lanka by managing early inroads into the Bangladesh side. Shakib's knock was the standout performance of this innings as he managed to take them to a respectable total. Mahmudullah gave him good company at the other end as the duo managed to rebuild the innings. Mahmudullah launched into the bowling attack in the batting powerplay. BD cored 95 runs off the last ten overs. One fails to understand the cause for not electing for the bating power play (BPP) by Bangladesh last two times, BPP came as a default.  If they had opted for BPP a bit early, perhaps they would have reached very close to 300. It does not now matter if BD wins this today as most probably Sri Lanka, the defending Asian Champions, would clinch the trophy comfortably. Unlike in India where preferred to lose to Indian, in BD the SL is keen to win.

Good efforts by Bangladeshi boys. Bngaldeshi bowlers and fielders must control the Indian run flows and restrict their big shots for boundaries to win the match now!

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

India