|
Originally Posted by nahaz
A lot of Banglacricket die-hards are hoping, and some expecting, a win against West Indies to take us to the quarter finals. I am surprised to not spot anyone tip us to beat England. I will make a case here as to why England is the 2nd best bet to topple a top 8 team ( or as the 2nd top 8 team to topple) and help make it to the semis.
England has just retained the Ashes in style. However, many forget they are the No.5 ODI team. They just concluded the ODI series tonight against Australia with a 6-1 defeat, which is bound to re-create doubts in their mind as to what their Wold Cup chances are. Now let us look at some particular aspects of the England team, their game and how it compares to hosts Bangladesh on March 11.
The English batting has recently been lacklustre. Trott, Cook and Strauss are their three best batsmen with Collingwood following them. Cook and Strauss can give England a solid start against Bangladesh. However, Cook shall be susceptible to the swinging ball, and Strauss can get out really early. Trott shall also be a big threat, holding onto one end early and hurting us if he stays past the 25 over mark.
After the top 3 however, England have Pietersen, who is hit-and-miss, and he struggles against Razzak. Eoin Morgan is another player who on his day is great but is still finding his feet in international cricket. Collingwood and Prior are good players, and can hurt us late in the game. However, any all-rounder England throws at us is almost guaranteed to be mediocre in batting. They would choke against our spin bowling, and only Swann in the late order can hit against our spinners. One other thing is English batsmen even struggled against the decent but unspectacula Dave Hussey and Steve Smith, both about the same level as Riyad. Imagine how much they might struggle against Shakib and Razzak on the Bangladeshi wicket.
In bowling, their strength has always been their pace bowling. However, once outside England and away from favourable conditions, their bowlers can struggle. This was demonstraed in Bangaldesh last year. An interesting outcome of the Australia series also was the long list of injuries. There is real concern from the English camp that Bresnan will be out. Shahzad, Swann, Broad, Tremlett and Collingwood are all recovering from injuries. Swann will however be the most troublesome bowler for England; however, I assume the Bangladeshis have an idea of how to tackle him by now. One other thing is dew could come in handy for the English.
The 7-match one day series between England and Australia on back of a 5-match Ashes series is bound to affect the fatigue level of players. It is a pity that the games are not being played in summer, when the English players would have been suffering from heat cramps etc.
The Bangladeshi players will no doubt target this game, with opportunity to go to the next round if they win this game, having already played Ireland and Windies. Tamim Iqbal will be licking his lips having found his favourite bowling attack at his mercy on his home ground at Chittagong. The surface may be sluggish, and this will no doubt help our spinners and cause endless trouble to the English batsmen. I expect/hope Razzak, Shakib and Tamim to win us this game with help from Shafi, Rubel and Imrul.
Probability of a Bangladeshi win: 40%.
|