Zephaniah
May 17, 2004, 06:53 PM
Dav has no answers
Rabeed Imam from St Vincent
Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore was understandably critical of his batsmen after losing the second one-day international against West Indies on Sunday.
"In the end the difference was 23 runs. Couldn't the top order have given us those runs? I don't know what to say, " he remarked acidly after his consistently inconsistent top-order flopped again chasing a modest 125-run target in a curtailed 25-over match.
But the Australian defended the decision to send Ashraful to open the innings.
"He has got potential as an opener in one-day cricket. We are still looking for the right combination but you have to give him a good run of 10-12 matches to find out, don't you?"
Ashraful scored a duck.
He was particularly upset with the way captain Habibul Bashar, his deputy Rajin Saleh and absolutely out of sorts Alok Kapali were dismissed.
Bashar followed up his first match duck with two while Saleh and Kapali made one. Interestingly both Bashar and Kapali were caught down the leg side.
"This was the first such dismissal in my entire career. We were a bit unlucky and the pitch wasn't ideal. I'm not trying to make excuses as we did not bat well but you have seen how the West Indian batsmen struggled too," said the Bangladesh skipper after the match. While it was a story of yet another brittle batting display, the bowlers commanded respect from their opponents.
Right-arm paceman Tapash Baisya cleverly disguised his slower balls bowled with a leg-spinner's wrist position to finish with 5-1-16-4, the best figures by a Bangladeshi in ODIs.
"This was something I had learned from watching Venkatesh Prasad of India. I had clocked up to 142 kmph today but it was necessary to mix things up because pace wasn't everything in one-day cricket," said the bowler from Sylhet.
Rabeed Imam from St Vincent
Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore was understandably critical of his batsmen after losing the second one-day international against West Indies on Sunday.
"In the end the difference was 23 runs. Couldn't the top order have given us those runs? I don't know what to say, " he remarked acidly after his consistently inconsistent top-order flopped again chasing a modest 125-run target in a curtailed 25-over match.
But the Australian defended the decision to send Ashraful to open the innings.
"He has got potential as an opener in one-day cricket. We are still looking for the right combination but you have to give him a good run of 10-12 matches to find out, don't you?"
Ashraful scored a duck.
He was particularly upset with the way captain Habibul Bashar, his deputy Rajin Saleh and absolutely out of sorts Alok Kapali were dismissed.
Bashar followed up his first match duck with two while Saleh and Kapali made one. Interestingly both Bashar and Kapali were caught down the leg side.
"This was the first such dismissal in my entire career. We were a bit unlucky and the pitch wasn't ideal. I'm not trying to make excuses as we did not bat well but you have seen how the West Indian batsmen struggled too," said the Bangladesh skipper after the match. While it was a story of yet another brittle batting display, the bowlers commanded respect from their opponents.
Right-arm paceman Tapash Baisya cleverly disguised his slower balls bowled with a leg-spinner's wrist position to finish with 5-1-16-4, the best figures by a Bangladeshi in ODIs.
"This was something I had learned from watching Venkatesh Prasad of India. I had clocked up to 142 kmph today but it was necessary to mix things up because pace wasn't everything in one-day cricket," said the bowler from Sylhet.