Why 355 is a good bowling job on this wicket.

[al Furqaan]

I said from the start that 400 would be a par score on this typical Mirpur wicket. This is where India reached 600-3 dec in the very first Test at this ground. Its where we scored 413 in a 4th innings chase v SL.

No swing, very little reverse, virtually zero turn, even bounce...this was a batters paradise. The fact that WI reached 230-3 and later 319-5 was proof that this was a solid track. But we did well to force a WI collapse to just 355.

Nasir bowled superbly, probably just as well as Sunny in the ctg Test...but the flat track meant he didn't get as many wickets. Mushy dropped 2 sitters. Rubel created a couple of chances, Shakib was Shakib, and even Shahadat bowled better than he gets credit for. Sure he was the worst bowler on display, but this pitch makes interstate highways jealous for flatness.

If we scored 350 declared at the ZACS dustbowl, we should not have problems with 355 here.

[F6_Turbo]

I think 355 anytime the opposition wins the toss and chooses to bat first is a good effort for the bowling team.

380-400, and you're leaning towards the batting team.

450+, definite win for the batting team.


*I think Shuvo might want to challenge the notion that Shahadat was the worst bowler on display, despite the wicket he picked up.

[Huda]

lol what were you saying? We are 4 down already, we have no consistency in our batting to say we will make any score above 250 on a regular basis. On a flat road we are already looking towards a big defeat, unless there is some resistance.

Look at fidels bounce and pace, makes a mockery of the shite Shahadat bowled.

[Nadim]

Credit goes to Shak and Nasir...rest were dhutbhat...specially Sahahadat

[WarWolf]

The WI score could have easily been 250 all out if we could manage to take those catches.

[Isnaad]

Emmm....our batsmen are just making it look like a huge one

[zman]

Let's see if we can cross the follow-on mark. Making WI bat again will be quite an accomplishment under the circumstances.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Huda
lol what were you saying? We are 4 down already, we have no consistency in our batting to say we will make any score above 250 on a regular basis. On a flat road we are already looking towards a big defeat, unless there is some resistance.

Look at fidels bounce and pace, makes a mockery of the shite Shahadat bowled.

than what about roach?

besides of the first 5 wickets to fall here they were:

tamim - took a hell of a catch
SN - stupid shot
Rock - genuinely beaten
Mushy - poor shot
Imrul - poor shot

so just one wicket due to "good bowling" not saying Edwards didn't bowl well but a combination of poor shot selection + the right kind of genuine pace is what created those wickets. the pitch was still flat as hell. even roach had poor figures although he didn't bowl crap as some think Shahadat did.

[Rabz]

355 was definitely very good bowling by the boys.
We lost our wickets due to the poor shots, not because of their good bowling.

[Banglaguy]

Pressure was built up, and in the context of West Indies batting, it was a good performance.

[lamisa]

when we come out to bat, pitch starts behaving like old trafford

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Rabz
355 was definitely very good bowling by the boys.
We lost our wickets due to the poor shots, not because of their good bowling.

Edwards bowled very well...he was at his lethal best or close to it. But yes, 4/5 wickets he took were totally avoidable. The proof lies in how pedestrian Edwards was despite a 2 hour break at the end of the day. Same pitch, same bowler, same (but older) ball.

[betaar]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
If we scored 350 declared at the ZACS dustbowl, we should not have problems with 355 here.

I agreed with most of what you said but the last sentence. The fact that you were brave, some might say naïve, enough to make that statement shows how some of us still hope against hope. But the fact remains, there's no guaranty with our top order. Doesn't matter how flat a track it is or how toothless of a bowling attack our batsmen face, they just don't have the patience to stick around and play a long inning. You can set a bowling machine to bowl the same damn ball without variations, our batsmen will still find an innovative way to get out.
The analysis you provided is not unknown which is why Tamim's record in Mirpur is better than ZACS. So our top order came with this pre-conceived notion "batting's easy on this flat Mirpur track", made them feel invincible and the end result was arrogance. Seeing the WI bowling on the slow low pitch of ZACS, they under estimated them. And because of the lack of bite in our own pace attack, our batsmen thought even less of what was to come from the WI pace codron on Mirpur pitch.

I think the mental approach of our batsmen was not right. They didn't want to wait and find out what the pitch or the bowlers were going to offer. I thnk it's "over confidence" that killed us when all they needed to do was to understand the pitch and at opponents pace bowling.
In boxing, if you cannot keep up with the speed of your opponent, tire them out before you can blow back. All we they needed to do was to tire the front bowler, Edward, till the next new ball was taken and capitalize on others….it's a shame our so called top order don't know the basic of test cricket.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by betaar
I agreed with most of what you said but the last sentence. The fact that you were brave, some might say naïve, enough to make that statement shows how some of us still hope against hope. But the fact remains, there's no guaranty with our top order. Doesn't matter how flat a track it is or how toothless of a bowling attack our batsmen face, they just don't have the patience to stick around and play a long inning. You can set a bowling machine to bowl the same damn ball without variations, our batsmen will still find an innovative way to get out.
The analysis you provided is not unknown which is why Tamim's record in Mirpur is better than ZACS. So our top order came with this pre-conceived notion "batting's easy on this flat Mirpur track", made them feel invincible and the end result was arrogance. Seeing the WI bowling on the slow low pitch of ZACS, they under estimated them. And because of the lack of bite in our own pace attack, our batsmen thought even less of what was to come from the WI pace codron on Mirpur pitch.

I think the mental approach of our batsmen was not right. They didn't want to wait and find out what the pitch or the bowlers were going to offer. I thnk it's "over confidence" that killed us when all they needed to do was to understand the pitch and at opponents pace bowling.
In boxing, if you cannot keep up with the speed of your opponent, tire them out before you can blow back. All we they needed to do was to tire the front bowler, Edward, till the next new ball was taken and capitalize on others….it's a shame our so called top order don't know the basic of test cricket.

excellent post, and i agree with you 100%. i was about to post "355 here will not pose a problem" and then quicly realized exactly what you pointed out and deleted the "will" to "should".

but it is indeed a pity that our top order don't know the basics of cricket. granted on his day Edwards can be pretty darn good, but its also true that we threw 4 of his 5 wickets away.

instead of putting ourselves on the backfoot, the top order should have seen Edwards off. he was far less imposing in his 2nd spell, and none of roach, sammy, bishoo, or samules posed any threat the entire innings (running through the tail doesn't count).

had we been 29-2 after the first 10 overs instead of 59-5, we would certainly have ended up with at least 300 runs total, and been very much in the game.

right now, i'm looking to the top order to make serious amends in the 2nd innings.

[zainab]

I hope that BD can pass the 300 mark in the second innings. WI will bat through the first session, declare, then let BD bat. I am hoping that they can survive until the end of the day and return the next day, impossible for them to save this test match,with the batsmen batting as if it is 20/20 match, I wonder if they ever think that they are fortunate to play for their country in the highest form of the game, so many players dream of playing test cricket, these guys approach this game as a joke.If they can change their attitude, then maybe their mindset will change.

[zman]

231 is a job even better than 355! It accurately portrays the gulf of difference in quality between our bowlers and theirs. In Edwards, Roach, Rampaul, Bishoo, they have a bowling unit that can give them a legit chance of competing against most teams or at least help them survive any pitch conditions, whereas we have a bowling unit that can only thrive in ctg conditions.