Jamie eyeing a fitting end

HOW WILL YOU PLAY THIS TIME? Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons is having a close look at the wicket of the Chittagong Divisional Stadium yesterday, ahead of today's final one-dayer against Zimbabwe. Photo: STAR

The instruction was there to prepare a true batting track for today's fifth and final one-day match to ease the criticism over the last match's pitch at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium. But it was not sure whether it would be possible to bring changes in the character of the track, though it's a new one, with only two days preparation.
The teams were however not too much concerned about the track, rather both focused on how they can improve their own performance.
One may feel there is no stake for the Tigers when they take on Zimbabwe in today's inconsequential last match after the home side clinched the series with one match in hand but Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons has still something to achieve from the last battle against Zimbabwe.
“It feels great to have won the series with one game to go. I guess you can relax a bit but we still have a lot of players who are under-performing. Ashraful has made one score in four hits. Riyad (Mahmudullah), Nayeem (Islam) and Zunaed (Siddiqui) have done nothing in this series. So we have a lot of room for improvement. We need these guys to perform to do well as a team against better opposition,” Siddons explained.
The Bangladesh coach said there is a no scope to be complacent in today's game because winning is a habit which will help the team to push the big opponents, especially when they are scheduled to meet India and Sri Lanka at home in January next year in the tri-nation one-day series.
“It feels good to be winning. The players are getting used to winning and that's a good thing. When we play India and Sri Lanka we'll know how to win and they'll need to play their best cricket to beat us. That's the beauty of what's happening to us at the moment,” he opined
And that's why the Australian was also not interested to give captain Shakib Al Hasan a rest in the match though the all-rounder is yet to recover hundred percent from his groin injury.
“We have been resting him (Shakib) like yesterday we didn't send him out to bat. In the game before we held him back and let the other guys go and bat. He is still not a hundred percent fit. His rehabilitation would probably take another six months. I don't think we'll rest him tomorrow but probably get him to do a little bit less work,” informed Siddons.
Siddon's charges have great chance to finish the memorable year on a winning note.
Apart from their heartbreaking early exit from the ICC T20 World Cup in England, the Tigers passed a memorable year as they won four one-day series and a Test series in this year
This year winning success however didn't surprise Siddons too much as he has belief in his boys.
“This is not really a surprise. I have said all along that this team is getting better but no one believed me. We're yet to play the world's best teams this year. We played what was probably a West Indies A team and Zimbabwe who are ranked below us. We were expected to do well against those sides but the hard part is doing that,” he said. “Zimbabwe are a good team and the West Indies team we played against was a good team as well. We had to play really good cricket to win those games. We've done that. I predict that we will get better. We still have a lot of improvement to do over the next two months and the next two years,” he continued.
It seemed that Bangladesh coach would not mind if the behaviour of the wicket remained the same for the last match.
“Probably it spun a bit too much. No one predicted that it would do that. I think the 9:30 start had a lot to do with it because there was still a lot of moisture in the wicket. But it suits us and anything that spins would suit us against Zimbabwe.”