banglalink
inside cricket with wasim
Akram Inswinger
It was a good toss to win by the Bangladeshi captain as they were given a flying start by the two opening batsmen on a slow track with no grass or moisture. But once again, the Bangladeshi batsmen let themselves down by playing stupid shots. Rajin Saleh had no business to play a shot like the way he did and get himself out. He should have thought of staying at the wicket, rotate strike and let Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed and the rest play their natural strokes. Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mashud played good nocks but just when the two senior players looked set and needed to play the full 50 overs, they played poor shots to get out. What the Bangladeshi team need is to play 50 over whenever they bat first, this can only happen if the top order batsmen build a few good partnerships, do not play rash strokes or throw away their wickets. Mohammad Ashraful looked out of form having played 23 balls for his five runs and then getting dismissed by playing a predetermined stroke. That goes to show he has very poor technique as he cannot judge the merit of the ball. With this kind of technique he can only get runs for his team a few times at this level. As for the Australian bowlers, they bowled pretty well on a slow track adapting to the condition well and taking wickets on regular intervals. The two new ball bowlers and the spinners, in particular Brad Hogg, bowled well to restrict Bangladesh to 195 all out. Adam Gilchrist once again showed that he is the best ODI opening batsman in the world as he played a great knock to put Australia on victory path. I remember during my playing days he was one player I was wary of bowling as he would just destroy and dominate any bowler. The two Bangladeshi opening bowlers bowled very ordinary, not utilising the condition well. I don't know why on earth Shahadat Hossain was left out of the side after having such a good Test match performance unless he is injured or not available for some personal reason. But I must say Bangladesh fought back well once Abdur Razzak removed Gilchrist for 76 and got the hosts right back in to the game. Mohammad Rafique at the age of 37 bowled very tight giving away only 14 runs in 10 overs. It was dependable Mike Hussey and once again Brett Lee who took the Australians home. If only Bangladesh had another 20 to 30 runs on the board then we might have seen a different result. But as Sunil Gavaskar said, enough of 'ifs' and 'buts' and it is now time to do it and I hope Bangladesh have taken enough lesson from the two Tests and the first ODI to show that they can do it in the remaining two ODIs.
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