NZ Herald: Black Caps brought back to earth

[zakirc]

Black Caps brought back to earth

Email this storyPrint this story 4:50PM Wednesday March 07, 2007



New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming and Bangladesh's Mashrafe Mortaza (L). Photo / Reuters
Cricket World Cup 2007

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The New Zealand cricket team have been called many things of late, but predictable is certainly not one of them.
Nine days out from their World Cup opener against England, they suffered a two-wicket loss to regular whipping boys Bangladesh in a warm-up match in Bridgetown, Barbados, today.
The shock result came just three weeks after their euphoric 3-0 one-day series humbling of Australia, but Bangladesh paid little respect to their opponents' form as they passed New Zealand's 226 with two wickets and six balls to spare.
There's no need for New Zealand to hit the panic button after today's glitch, but a win over Sri Lanka in their final pre-tournament hitout on Friday takes on more importance as they look to maintain some momentum before playing England.
Skipper Stephen Fleming admitted he was at a loss to explain today's result.
"There's not a lot we can say, I guess it's a result that just shakes you up," Fleming said.
"We just didn't play well, I don't want to give any excuses. It gives us some headaches and I suppose you can say it's a wake-up call before the tournament starts.

"The only other positive for us is that this wasn't a pool match but it shows how tough this tournament can be."
Bangladesh tore through New Zealand's top order batting to reduce them to 75 for six after Fleming won the toss and chose to bat.
They stumbled to 21 for three and the situation failed to improve as Mashrafe Mortaza, who finished with four for 44, caused havoc.
Allrounder Jacob Oram, fractured finger and all, stepped up with a belligerent 88, putting on 105 for the seventh wicket with Brendon McCullum, who made 46.
McCullum conceded that on a pitch that flattened out as the match progressed the New Zealanders fell 30 runs short of compiling a defendable total.
"They came out firing and were 60-odd without loss, and when you're chasing 220-odd it's the ideal start," McCullum told Radio Sport.
"I thought we came back nicely. Dan (Vettori) and Jeetan (Patel) bowled well, but at the end of the day 226 wasn't enough, but we probably could have made it enough if we bowled and fielded better than we did."
Javed Omar and Tamim Iqbal rattled on 85 for the opening wicket for Bangladesh.
Iqbal, 17 and with just four one-day internationals behind him, hit a breezy 46 from 48 balls.
Vettori and offspinner Patel applied the screws to restrict Bangladesh's chase, but Mortaza capped a fine day's work as he ended the match in style by blasting two successive sixes off James Franklin in the penultimate over.
He hit 30 from 14 balls as Bangladesh reached 230 for eight.
McCullum conceded the loss was a timely wake-up call, but the team were not too despondent.
"The pride comes in and you never want to lose when you're playing for New Zealand, but there is a bigger picture.
"It's tough losing to Bangladesh, but ... it's not a bad thing either to come down after the euphoria we were at after the Australia series, to give us a little prick and bring us down a couple of pegs."
The feeling in the camp has been tempered further with confirmation paceman Mark Gillespie is suffering from a viral infection.
Gillespie was rested from today's match due to an arm which became temporarily numbed after the long flight to the West Indies.
Radio New Zealand reported Gillespie has contracted an acute disorder related to a virus that affects the nerves in the spine and shoulder region.
He visited a specialist and his condition will be assessed on Friday.
- NZPA

[Outswinger]

Now we can beat Australia again & again caz we beat NZ , who just had whitewashed Australia .

I wanna see Bangladesh to be in the semi-finals atleast ............

[zakirc]

Originally Posted by Outswinger
Now we can beat Australia again & again caz we beat NZ , who just had whitewashed Australia .

I wanna see Bangladesh to be in the semi-finals atleast ............

but regular whipping boys???I cant believe we were arguing in another thread about calling others "minnows" ....

আমরা এত ভদ্র কেন?

[Tehsin]

Until we win a few more matches against the top teams, we're still not there yet. Semi final may be a stretch, maybe not(the guys are hungry and they know how to win but is that enough ?), I'll take it one win at a time and shoot for the second round. Small steps people, small steps.

[Outswinger]

Originally Posted by Tehsin
Until we win a few more matches against the top teams, we're still not there yet. Semi final may be a stretch, maybe not(the guys are hungry and they know how to win but is that enough ?), I'll take it one win at a time and shoot for the second round. Small steps people, small steps.

Time to prove the critics wrong & get few upsets in the trot .

Dream off first & then make it happen .

[Tendulkar_Mcgrath]

we should target india...coz india is shaky...if we play like this,we can beat them ,ques is will we be able to play like this?

[Imteaz]

Better Luck Next Time Newzealand.........................be Carefull about Us from Now..............

[Rubu]

This pitch is written for NZ only, otherwise, I would say it lacked a bit of respect for us (which now we deserve - *shaking my shirt's collar*)

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by Rubu
This pitch is written for NZ only, otherwise, I would say it lacked a bit of respect for us (which now we deserve - *shaking my shirt's collar*)

Speaking of collar, did you see the new collar of Bd jersey the yellow is gone and looks fine.

[Farhad]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
Speaking of collar, did you see the new collar of Bd jersey the yellow is gone and looks fine.

Yeah,they removed the yellow from the collar, only to put it on the cap....Which, believe me, looks a hundred times worse....

[AsifTheManRahman]

haven't found any reactions from the bangladeshi staff/players.

[akabir77]

here is another article on yesterdays game from yahoo...

http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/070307/1/474d7.html

You will find some reaction our skipper in this one

[FaridpurChicago]

The game tells a lot, answers a lot of questions.
First of all we need to beat endia. Then going to semi will be just matter of time. The boys are flying high and it is quite possible that we will be winning against india.
- JO may have the quality to stay longer but definitely not a man in today's ODI
- Ash is changing probably. He now tries to score 30s which is very important to us. No more in the mindset of hero or zero.
- Aftab re Ashraful er rog e dhorse. Simply a tendency to become hero which a worrying factor for us.
- Rajin is no close to be considered in playing eleven.
- Replacing Pilot with Mushfiq was a wise decision taken by Faruq & Co. Pilot would have consumed 50 balls to score that 19 and hence another 'shomman jonok porajoy'.
- Bashar's tendency of running (himself or partner) out is another factor to be worried. He needs to correct it if we want to beat India.
- Taposh er jonno side bench e boisha thakai valo. or num er proty o shubichar hoy, doler jonno o valo hoy.
- Rasel's line/length is more important than Shahadat's pace. If we bowl in the morning then Rasel will be better choice than Shahadat.
The team is pretty much fixed, we need to fix some problems here and there. That's all, we are set to beat India.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by akabir77
here is another article on yesterdays game from yahoo...

http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/070307/1/474d7.html

You will find some reaction our skipper in this one

thanks. i like how flemming says "we just couldn't shake them" lol. goes to show the kind of spirit residing with the team.

[pagol-chagol]

Originally Posted by FaridpurChicago
The game tells a lot, answers a lot of questions.
First of all we need to beat endia. Then going to semi will be just matter of time. The boys are flying high and it is quite possible that we will be winning against india.
- JO may have the quality to stay longer but definitely not a man in today's ODI
- Ash is changing probably. He now tries to score 30s which is very important to us. No more in the mindset of hero or zero.
- Aftab re Ashraful er rog e dhorse. Simply a tendency to become hero which a worrying factor for us.
- Rajin is no close to be considered in playing eleven.
- Replacing Pilot with Mushfiq was a wise decision taken by Faruq & Co. Pilot would have consumed 50 balls to score that 19 and hence another 'shomman jonok porajoy'.
- Bashar's tendency of running (himself or partner) out is another factor to be worried. He needs to correct it if we want to beat India.
- Taposh er jonno side bench e boisha thakai valo. or num er proty o shubichar hoy, doler jonno o valo hoy.
- Rasel's line/length is more important than Shahadat's pace. If we bowl in the morning then Rasel will be better choice than Shahadat.
The team is pretty much fixed, we need to fix some problems here and there. That's all, we are set to beat India.

You covered everything. You should start a thread with these comments as your post game analysis.

[FaridpurChicago]

Originally Posted by pagol-chagol
You covered everything. You should start a thread with these comments as your post game analysis.

jo hukum jaha pona.