Match Thread: Bangladeshis vs Northern Knights, Tour Match, NZ at Hamilton, December 16, 2007

[nzfan]

http://www.blackcaps.co.nz/content/statecricket/landing.aspx

this shows that the knights arnt going that great..

[AsifTheManRahman]

Again, folks it's a practice match - the 1st game of the tour. So cut out the doom and gloom. And please lay off the petty stuff like calling NZ names ..

Yeah. It's all about warming up, trying different things, getting a measure of the bounce and movement on the plate and trying not to get injured while at it. I wouldn't be surprised if they do better in the next two practice matches (not that it matters as long as they do what they have to in the ODIs).

[nzfan]

subcontinent teams suffer in New Zealand

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/match/64134.html

don't feel too disheartened

[Foozy]

True said, this really didn't matter and doesn't matter as long as they play well and win a couple in the ODIs that matter. Ash scoring even relatively is a good sign. Something big might be around the bend in the real matches!
And Junaed is just a star! Would JO ever have scored this?;) haha
Sakib will hopefully learn from his mistakes. Thats just how he is!
Farhad had good bowling figures and still did some reasonable late order batting.
Good to see Mash with some scores again.
The rest of the team, hope they also learn from the mistakes, and Siddons helps them.
But I have faith that something big is around the bend...

[BANFAN]

Was a shameful defeat.

Does morning show the day?

Can only wait and watch, hope thaey learn from mistakes and learns soon.

[Antora]

wtf! we lost? OMG!!!! local teamer shatey ei vabey herey gele ashol teamer shatey ki khelbo? ahh!

[Nocturnal]

only our first practice match in NZ. we will do better. keep your faith on your team.

[Dhakablues]

only our first practice match in NZ. we will do better. keep your faith on your team.

I agree. It takes time for our team to adjust to conditions. Yes, the margin looks pretty big but historically Bangladesh becomes better over the series and I hope the practice matches and the 20/20 will provide some good practice before the actual ODIs,, it allows the team to figure out the right areas of improvement.

Siddons was right ( so were we all), Junaed could become the "find" of the tour. He does have the potential. But Aftab/Tamim are playing very predictable games of high striking rate but no balanced aggression. Other than that, I have to say we didnnt play too well but we didnt play hopelessly bad. And guys,, please get over this thought of scoring 220+ is a good score,, it isnt. We are not in the 80s where you can win a match by scoring 250 ( Forget what Ashraful thinks about scoring 240 and winning easily). If we are really to challenge quality opposition, any score beyond 280-290 is not defendable... Period. I hope we can get that kind of score in the next game.. Hope not expect.. :)

[hoodlum]

the bowling has been pretty much disappointing...we have to do something with the bowling...222 is a decent score and is defendable...we also had the fire power i.e mash,razzak,rasel,sakib and also shahadat...unfortunately all the guys failed badly and the most concerning factor is that they all went for runs...we cant say that it was a batting paradise pitch...the condition was good for the bowlers...but all of dem went for 5.00+ rpo....only farhad was a stand out for us...good to see that..but siddons really have to do something otherwise we are gonna get hammered by the kiwis badly !!

[rashed_va]

It was my first time watching tigers play live! I thought our overall performane was ok. Although we should have scored more as the field was comparatively small. Bowling was decent. I thought Shahadat was impressive, just not lucky enough. The Umps were playing favoritism with Lbws. The worst was seeing Rasel go down. I could feel the pain as he dived and fell on his left palm - a bit unnessessary on his part as the rest of the play was quite laid back. Heard he may be out for some time. Anyways, I still feel positive. Going back to Hamilton on Tuesday.

[jisaan]

i have a fear about zunaed. This is BD tradition, who is doing well in the practice matches, never perform in the real match

last 20/20------ nazimuddin
last world cup--- shahriar nafees
previous world cup--- al shahriar (he even scored 176 against some SAF club team)

add something more to your list:

Sanwar hossain in 2002 in Saf
Tushar .... lots of examples
Alok ... prior to t20 wc
ehsanul haque before 2003 wc

[Nocturnal]

It was my first time watching tigers play live! I thought our overall performane was ok. Although we should have scored more as the field was comparatively small. Bowling was decent. I thought Shahadat was impressive, just not lucky enough. The Umps were playing favoritism with Lbws. The worst was seeing Rasel go down. I could feel the pain as he dived and fell on his left palm - a bit unnessessary on his part as the rest of the play was quite laid back. Heard he may be out for some time. Anyways, I still feel positive. Going back to Hamilton on Tuesday.

thanks rashed bhai for sharing. we will expect a full match report after Hamilton game (2nd practice match) plus pictures! :)

[jisaan]

It was my first time watching tigers play live! I thought our overall performane was ok. Although we should have scored more as the field was comparatively small. Bowling was decent. I thought Shahadat was impressive, just not lucky enough. The Umps were playing favoritism with Lbws. The worst was seeing Rasel go down. I could feel the pain as he dived and fell on his left palm - a bit unnessessary on his part as the rest of the play was quite laid back. Heard he may be out for some time. Anyways, I still feel positive. Going back to Hamilton on Tuesday.
alarming!rasel is one of our main hopes in nz..

[BanCricFan]

Hope Rasel recovers soon!

Wouldn't read too much into this result but Aftab should bat at 3,

[jisaan]

Tigercricket report

HAMILTON: Bangladesh’s match-preparation on the tour of New Zealand got off to an inauspicious start when the State Northern Knights eased to a 7-wicket victory with seven and a half overs to spare chasing a target of 223 in the first warm-up at Seddon Park today (Sunday). The day ended on a gloomier note for the tourists when it was learnt that left-arm paceman Syed Rasel had suffered a dislocated left collar bone.
In the 32nd over of the Knights’ innings Rasel took a tumble while fielding a ball and landed hard on his left shoulder and immediately raised his right hand to signal his distress. He was taken for an x-ray straightaway and reports confirmed the dislocation. The bowler will be examined by an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning before further assessment is made on his injury.
Under scattered cloud cover Bangladesh were put in by Knights skipper James Marshall. Openers Zunaed Siddique and Tamim Iqbal looked comfortable against the seamers from the beginning and Tamim helped himself to a couple of flicked fours while Siddique cleared the infield whenever the ball was pitched up. The Knights’ new ball bowlers Tim Southee and Brent Arnel struggled with line in the beginning but Tamim (12) gifted the home side a breakthrough when he slashed at an away going ball and was caught behind (27/1 in 8.0 overs).
Siddique continued to play confidently but saw number three Tushar Imran (8) taken down the leg side with 64 on the board. Captain Mohammad Ashraful then put on 57 with Siddique before he was gone for a fluent 30. The Tigers captain went hard at a Southee delivery and was given out after a prolonged appeal.
There were no demons in the wicket and the batsmen faced little difficulty in negotiating the occasional movement and zip. But the tigers lost crucial wickets at the wrong moments. Shakib Al Hasan (6) was unfortunate as his full-blooded sweep stuck in the hands of short mid wicket Bradley Watling and Aftab Ahmed (12) edged to the keeper when he flashed outside off.
From 121/2 Bangladesh slumped to 143/5 in 37th over. Siddique reached his half century with a cracking off drive for four and then hit the first six of the Bangladesh innings but when he needed to go on he holed out at mid off having made 73 off 114 balls.
Farhad Reza and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza ensured that the Tigers passed 200. Mortaza (25) clouted a six and three fours while Reza made a run-a-ball 27 as Bangladesh finished with 222/8.
The Knights were off to a solid start as Mortaza and Rasel were guilty of bowling a touch short. By the time the spinners came in the batsmen were already set. Left-handed opener Nick Horsley pulled and cut his way to 92 and Marshall remained not out on 55 in a convincing win. Ground fielding was good from the Bangladesh team but the bowlers need more adjusting to do in their next warm-up on Tuesday if they want to come back strong.
“I was pleased with the way we batted initially. The goal was to not lose wickets and we achieved that. However we lost our way in the middle and we could not have a crack in the last few overs. Also I guess we were a touch slow to start with and probably fell short by 30 runs,” said Tigers coach Jamie Siddons. “The target for us is to improve every match and there were some good things today that we want to take into the game on Tuesday and we will try not to repeat the mistakes. In bowling we were too short on occasions and our spinners did not get the turn. Horsely also played brilliantly. He made good balls look bad,” added Siddons.
Knights coach Andy Moles meanwhile believed the Tigers will come back hard at them in the next match.
“The area young side and showed a lot of spirit. It will be foolish to look too much into today’s performance from them. Today was more a case of getting used to the conditions for Bangladesh. They will get better as the tour goes on and Tuesday could be a totally different ball game. No one in New Zealand think that they (Bangladesh) will be pushovers on this tour.”

[Moshin]

i cannot believe we have lost to them!
zunaed played preety well, played really good,
but the bowlers, were really bad, really bad,
i wonder how they are going to play against NZ!

[Bengaliprince176]

o damn!!! i thought we wud have bolwed well, espeically with a decent totoal on the board. Junaid is starting to impress me a lot!! i cnt belive AFtab failed...damn! but hey MAsh hit a six!!! Sharbarsh Mash Dada!!

[Russell2k7]

What is this thing about "this our first game," "warmup game," "havnt played in a while" motto? The fact is that we batted crap and got smoked from a domestic club. If you can't beat a domestic club even in a warm up game there is absolutely nothing much you can say.

[FagunerAgun]

Get one, lose two - almost a tradition in BD team.

We got Zunayed but a couple of rising suns were shy behind the cloud, even did not bother to show up whole day. The day was really gloomy.

Come on, handsome, cuties, make us happy, don't be so shy.

[kaisermatin]

looks like spin didn't help that much. good practice match. team should move on, work hard, focus and aim high. Russel injury looks serious.

[Nafi]

Its acceptable to lose the warm-up match, to me the learning process is much more important than a victory

[zainab]

Has anyone heard more about Rasel? I think that they will have to have another pacer, but who?
I hope Siddons tries out Nazimul in the nets. He did not bowl too badly against Australia in 2005. I think that Aftab should come in at his usual No 3 position and Ash at #4. This worked in the 20/20 match.
Its sad that they lost to a league club which is not doing very well against other leagues. I hope this does not throw a damper on the boys. Winning always builds confidence, I think that is why they won the match against India in the World Cup, they had won all their practise games.
This is a bad start to their tour, but hopefully Siddons will try to point out mistakes, and they can rebound. I felt that they left the scoring too late. After 40 overs, they should have had 200 runs.

One must also remember that these lads are suffering from jet lag, lack of proper sleep and change of environment, their bodies have to reset and this will take about 1 week.

[Kabir]

I don't think there's anything wrong in losing this warmup match. Whatever it does to the records, you can shub it up to the people's ~~~~ if they give too much damn about it.

I just loved the consistency at the beginning. Certainly Shakib and Aftab are the two players I am watching out for right now. I'm happy to see Mash back at what he does the best.

[Russell2k7]

Loosing a warm up game to New Zealand is absolutely fine but getting smoked from their domestic club is far from absolutely fine. What,it will be good if they get smoked again coming this tuesday? If they don't pull their acts together before they meet the kiwis then they are just asking for it. Plus, the problem is not that they lost to a domestic club but that they were utterly destroyed. The way they(Bangladesh) were playing even our Under-19 team would beat them.

Anyway, all done is done. Now pull back and get them this tuesday.

[Murad]

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/83800/83834.jpg
Junaid Siddique powers the ball to long-on during his 73, Northern Districts v Bangladesh, Tour Match, Hamilton, December 16, 2007

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/83800/83843.jpg
Junaid Siddique signals to the physio after Syed Rasel dislocated his left collar bone while fielding, Northern Districts v Bangladesh, Tour Match, Hamilton, December 16, 2007

http://www.bangladesherkhela.com/adminpanel/pictures/1197814537.jpg

[KnightBD]

Tigercricket report

HAMILTON: Bangladesh’s match-preparation on the tour of New Zealand got off to ... snip
Please stop posting the whole article. A link is fine, even better a gist. Anybody can follow link and read the whole story if he wishes.

[abu2abu]

i agree as a warm up game the result is not that important. however losing all the warm ups will be. as others have pointed out this is a pretty poor club side and nz seamers are not eaxactly the fastest in the world!

[abu2abu]

also tushar is going some way to be dropped b4 his 1st game. he certainly shouldn't be batting at 3! far too high...

[Dhakablues]

Russel being down is a bummer... it means now Shahadat will have to be in the final 11. It cant e Sajid or Dollar.. they are too inexperienced to play ODIS against oppostion like NZ. Russel was one of the key players.

[zainab]

subcontinent teams suffer in New Zealand

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/match/64134.html

don't feel too disheartened

Exactly! my own words, if a strong team like SL can suffer a defeat like this with their batting and bowling, I dont know what our poor lads will do. Anyhow, after this year SL started to beat the Kiwis. Thy also beat them in Sri lanka in 2005 without Murali.

Just read in the daily star that one of the pace bowlers from the standby team will be flown to NZ, they have 3 in mind, tomorrow should know who it is. Sajidul Islam. Mahmudullah and Dollar. but I think it will be Sajidul. With that type of injury, Rasel cannot play for the rest of the tour.

[cricket_king]

The real loss in this match is Rasel. That could have a huge effect on our bowling attack...

[sunniath]

our top order will struggle in nz condition because of the type of players they are. aftab,ash,tamim will find it hard to score in seaming condition.tushar will choke like rokon,dont know how zunaid will react in international arena.so basically i am depending on mushfiq,sakib and tail enders.i cant see us score over 150-180 in odis and to me,that is understandable considering the condition.
so no hope,only wishing some good fight.

[zahid]

The real loss in this match is Rasel. That could have a huge effect on our bowling attack...

Yes, Shahdat is now our only fit pacer.

[zainab]

Yes, Shahdat is now our only fit pacer.

What ABOUT Mash?

[Eshen]

BTW, Mashrafe did get to meet Robinson (whose skull he cracked during the last tour), the Northern Districts batsman, in the match. I wonder what they said to each other.

[zia]

BTW, Mashrafe did get to meet Robinson (whose skull he cracked during the last tour), the Northern Districts batsman, in the match. I wonder what they said to each other.

How did you learn? Any link?

[wiseshah]

add something more to your list:

Sanwar hossain in 2002 in Saf
Tushar .... lots of examples
Alok ... prior to t20 wc
ehsanul haque before 2003 wc


thanks for the info. so hope its not junaed's turn now. I want him to establish his place.

[wiseshah]

next warm up match, my line up is

juaned
tamim
mushfiq
sakib
ashraful
aftab
farhad
mehrab jr
mashrafi
razzaq
shahadat
nazmul--as 12th man

Bd captain should rotate bowlers for more success, when he has option

[BANFAN]

The real loss in this match is Rasel. That could have a huge effect on our bowling attack...

Think Rajib will be much more useful than Rasel in NZ conditions.

[BANFAN]

There is a concept amongst many in BD, 'Finale mere debo'. So ignore all previous exams/practices before the final, but finale mara aar hoy na.

Practice matches are definitely not for loosing, you need to have practice of winning as well. I am not at all angry on the team that they lost, but can't say 'Loosing is perfectly ok'. It is not at all OK.

Every loss needs to be closely looked at, to correct the lacks/mistakes.

[Kuddus]

Batting Order:

Lets assume that Mehrab is picked instead of Tushar for the first match. Then we'll have three openers. Now the question is which two will open? I think Tamim gets to open simply because he will not be useful in any other position in the batting order. Now the other spot I think should go to Mehrab as I believe he is the slowest among all our batsman. Opening will give him time to settle in and anchor one side of the innings. But then where will we put Zunaed? If lets say he scores like 30 and 40 in the next two practice matches which would mean he would have scored 140 odd runs in the three practice matches. Then how do you justify not playing him as the opener?

From his only footage i saw of Zunaed batting (in the 20/20) it looked like he is a much better player of spin bowling than Tamim is, therefore he should fit nicely in the middle overs (although as I write this i realize NZ doesn't have much spin option except vettori). Now number 3 is the most debatable position in my mind. If we put Zunaed here we'll have three left handers in a row, maybe not the most desirable option. Aftab will change up the dimension and will at least force the bowlers to adjust to the left-right combination. And I know there are arguments of playing Aftab at No.6 since he can potentially give us the big finish, I personally am more comfortable with an Aftab facing a hard new ball with the field up than an Aftab facing an old roughed up ball in the 35th over with the field spread against Vettori. This will also sandwich our slowest batter (mehrab) between our two most explosive ones (Tamim and Aftab).

No.4 should be Ashraful. Again just a personal opinion (feel free to argue) as I feel the best batsman in any team should bat at least in the top four. I think history supports that, and I want Ash in the middle for as long as possible.

Now we are left with No.5 and No.6 and Sakib and Zunaed. Now if either Aftab or Tamim are going guns blazing, or have given as an electrifying start (R.R. 6 +), then Sakib can go at No.4. Otherwise Ash goes at 4 as previously discussed.

From here I don't know what to do, playing neither Sakib nor Zunaed at number 6 makes any sense. Some people might want to see Mushfiq at number three but if Mehrab opens he should be able to do the work (which is stabilizing the innings i assume) that Mushfiq is predominantly sent in to do at the top of the order.

Lets hear some solutions people....

[BANFAN]

I am not sure, if tamim should open. Someone more stable should be in the openning slot. I agree with the idea that Aftab needs to be there during the fielding restrictions, but not sure if he can continue his usual kind of batting in NZ conditions. Hope he can adjust his game to the condition. Junaid should be in 3/4 not bellow, as he looks to be inform.

[abu2abu]

It's an interesting idea to have Mushfiq and Shakib bat higher up the order. perhaps we could drop tamim and try shakib as an opener? Either way I think aftab should bat at 3 and Ash at 4....

[Omio]

When is next match?
is it tonight?

[Miraz]

When is next match?
is it tonight?

Yap! opened the match thread, hopefully we will bounce back. :)

[AsifTheManRahman]

Here's why Aftab should bat at #6 (other than the popular beliefs of him being a finisher and Mushfiq getting wasted at #6): After Tamim and Zunaed return to the dressing room after a blitzkrieg without the blitz, we'll probably be risking losing another one quickly if Aftab doesn't resist his temptations to go over the top while remaining indifferent to the situation in hand. We can't afford to have all of our first three go crazy. We could if only we were Australia or Sri Lanka or South Africa.

[Spitfire_x86]

Here's why Aftab should bat at #6 (other than the popular beliefs of him being a finisher and Mushfiq getting wasted at #6): After Tamim and Zunaed return to the dressing room after a blitzkrieg without the blitz, we'll probably be risking losing another one quickly if Aftab doesn't resist his temptations to go over the top while remaining indifferent to the situation in hand. We can't afford to have all of our first three go crazy. We could if only we were Australia or Sri Lanka or South Africa.
We need at least 100 runs on the board after first 20 over, even if it costs 3 wickets. Since we're not Australia / South Africa, in case if both of our openers fail we are at a risk of scoring 80 or less runs in the first 20 overs. Having Aftab at #3 ensures better chance of maintaining good scoring rate, even if a couple wickets fall quickly.

If we want someone who can hold in the middle order together, send Mushfiq at #5. Unfortunately I don't see any place for Tushar in the batting lineup, except the #7 position.

[AsifTheManRahman]

I don't see Tushar making it to the XI either, unless someone is terribly out of form.