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Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
well back then we had a very indisciplined team. shot selection was an unknown feature, and we were regularly getting thrashed by the test teams. our top order would quikcly fall to 40-4 or 70-5 or something of that sort, and then KM would lead the tail-enders to take the score to 160, and occassionally 190. this would happen in EVERY match - one could've taken it for granted. we were still incapable of beating kenya. we had batsmen like Al Shahriar, who wouldn't know better than swinging the bat at everything. in fact all the batsmen were so out of form that they would try to hit their way back in, and this went on for years. combinations came and went, and nothing worked. test status came too early, and was more of a burden than anything else.
under such circumstances, i don't see how someone would've expected us to win. the truth is, we were in fact worse than canada in 2003, and even if we did beat them, there was no way we were going to beat kenya. although the match against canada is labelled as one of the biggest upsets in world cup history, it really wasn't. we'd been given test status too early, and if we had to play in the icc trophy back then, i'm sure we wouldn't have made it - because that's just how bad we were. sure, we beat pakistan and scotland, but the quality of cricket had been terrible since then. we did not know how to win. we did not know how to chase. neither did we have any clue as to how to rotate the strike/build up an inning.
even after the world cup, we went on to lose to scotland (or was it ireland?), and managed to pull off a win at the last moment in one of the games. we struggled to whitewash namibia - beating them by narrow margins in pretty much all three games. the only reasons we had the test status were strong lobbying, support from Dalmiah, and interest among fans. heck, even the infrastructure wasn't all that great, barring a new stadium with decent facilities (that too shared with soccer).
however, our cricket has come quite a way since, and even though we are still very unpredictable as well as vulnerable, we've beaten some decent sides over the last couple of years. this bunch has been playing together for the last year or so, and playing minnows has taught us how to deal with them and exert our superiority on them. we are officially number 9 now, and truly deserve the test status more than any of the other countries below us in the rankings. if we lose to canada day after tomorrow, i wouldn't mind labelling that as an upset this time.
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