[IanW]

It is said that a French general described the Charge of the Light Brigade as "C'est magnifque, mais ce n'est pas la guerre" ... "It was magnificent, but it wasn't war".

Sakib's charge on the fifth morning at Hamilton was like that ; coming in on zero with five wickets down and 88 runs on the board, he is not out 98 at lunch with the side at 7-255.

He took it up to the bowlers, hitting an amazing eighteen off one Vettori over.

Musfiquir and Mahmadullah helped, but were out - Musfiqir to an outside edge, and Mahmadullah caught in the deep on the charge - and Shahadat did sterling service with a well-earned and tough no runs. Dont think I'm praising with faint damns there, while Rajib was putting the front foot forward and chancelessly blocking Vettori and Patel, Sakib was scoring at the other end.

Then, his century in the bag after lunch, he went the charge against Southee and was bowled, with resistance rapidly fading thereafter, despite some bright hitting by Shahadat and Shaiful.

The game had been lost the night before, with a series of brain explosions by the alleged batsmen in the Bangladesh top order leaving the bottom five with another mission impossible, but Sakib's Charge caused some nervous moments for the New Zealand fans I shared my tree with, as the runs required went from 300 to 280 to 260 to 240 to 220.

While he was there, all things were possible.

But then he had a brain explosion, and then resistance was futile.

I was there. I saw it ; but I just wish we'd had another 2 wickets in hand when it was on, even if those two were Aftab and Ashraful.

C'est magnifique.

Ian Whitchurch