Eid vacation has made the players lazy
F Waliullah

Sloppy cricket - only some guts were shown by Alok Kapali after hurting his finger and some usual resistence by captain and keeper Khaled Mashud. That was it. That was the story of Day One of the first - what is a historic test match between Bangladesh and West Indies.

Whatever the players have learnt in South Africa, they have managed to 'drop their knowledge' in South Africa. Bad English? Well, that is exactly how poor cricket that Bangladeshi players have shown today. Sure - there was some grass on the otherwise bald wicket, there was also some good bounce - which is unlike the normal Dhaka wickets. But in the batting, only Ashraful stayed at the wicket long enough to get troubled by the extra bounce and a little movement. Then again, he did not go to South Africa.

Hannan Sarkar got a similar delivery that took the wicket of Habibul Bashar in the 2nd One Day match - a very good yorker. Debutante Anwar Hossain seemed more immatured to really earn a test place. Ashraful could not withstand the bounce of the wicket. Habibul Bashar gave his wicket away after being set. Aminul Islam tried to play too many shots on the back foot and was fooled by Lawson's pace. Alok Kapali got a surprised inswinger.

Khaled Mashud was also fooled when he was bowled in between the gaps of his bat and pad. Naimur Rahman has proven that he should be called a specialist bowler rather than an allrounder. Enamul Haque tried his best to just hang around. Tapash Baisya tried his best to show that he is not a potential all rounder that we inititally thought of him. On the other hand, Talha Jubair seemed like a specialist batsman when he put away a full toss.

The positives of the match - Habibul Bashar's 1000 run mark - the first ever Bangladeshi batsman to do such a thing in any form of international cricket - whether its test cricket or one day cricket. Alok Kapali got his maiden test fifty after some 20s and 30s in test match cricket. Khaled Mashud is still a responsible skipper.

The bowlers showed that they will need to work harder tomorrow and may be the day after tomorrow to get the West Indies batsman all out.There is just one glimmer of hope and that is the inconsistent nature of the batsman.

Remember Bangladesh were all out for 90 runs vs Sri Lanka in the first innings and then were all out after scoring over 300 runs in the 2nd innings?

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