Bizzare

[Sham]

Mashud decided to open with Monju and Sanwar today. I thought that was a strange decision. Of course Sanwar had to complete the over from yesterday but I was surprised that Pilot kept him on. The ball was only 17 overs old at the start of play. Why bowl a spinner with a relatively new ball, only means he will have to bowl a seamer with an older ball. Sort of strange. I suppose he thought Sanwar was the most likely person to take a wicket, which would justify bowling him, but doesnt justify keeping him on for 7 overs when he gave away 43 runs. Monju at the other end has bowled 6 overs, five of them maidens, but its all a waste because Sanwar has let off the pressure by giving away sixes.

If there is one major criticism I have of Pilot, it is that he is very slow to change bowlers. He keeps them on even when they struggle. I mean, one or two bad overs is fine but why GOD why would you bowl someone for 7 overs and have them give away 43 runs. As I write this, Pilot has given Sanwar an EIGHTH over and Sanwar has given away 9 runs in the first three balls. I just dont get this.

[Edited on 26-10-2002 by Sham]

[rafiq]

pilot must be smokin' crack behind the stumps... this is the second new ball I think

End of over 88 (14 runs) South Africa 332/2 (lead by 117 runs)
Sanwar Hossain 18-1-89-1 - Daly Ford End
G Kirsten 116* (171b 14x4 1x6) JH Kallis 70* (115b 9x4 1x6)

87.6 Sanwar Hossain to Kallis, SIX, smashed over the head of the bowler
to the long off boundary, that's a huge shot!
87.5 Sanwar Hossain to Kallis, no run
87.4 Sanwar Hossain to Kallis, FOUR, on the leg side, smashed through
mid wct area
87.3 Sanwar Hossain to Kallis, no run, played to mid on
87.2 Sanwar Hossain to Kallis, no run, played to cover
87.1 Sanwar Hossain to Kallis, FOUR, on the off side, smashed past
diving xtra cover, ballr aces to the boundary, long off tries to
cut it off but not a chance

[rafiq]

maybe they didn't take the new ball, because now kapali is bowling the 91st over.

[Tehsin]

It's about the only thing majority of the fans agree on - Pilot has NO IDEA about rotating his bowlers.
This wasn't the first time and obviously not the last.
Look at this two:
Sanwar Hossain (OB) 20.0 1 98 1 4.90
Alok Kapali (LB) 14 2 46 0 3.29

Kapali is the regular bowler but he bowled six less overs then Sanwar. Sanwar is good for a few overs every match because he sometimes manages to break through a partnership. This is too much. Pilot could have even tried SUMON for an over or two.

I just remembered another thing - Sharif is our best pacer with the older ball. We could have used him well in this match.

[Shubho]

Our bowling is crap. Full stop. To put it in even more lay terms: we suck big time (in the bowling department). Now I know that the only reason we pick up wickets in ODIs is because the batsmen get themselves out by trying to make big scores too fast. So much for sending people like Monjurul to bowling academies in Australia. Oh well, maybe another day. Let's hope Masri is as good as people say he is.

[rafiq]

wisden reports BD bowled with the old ball throughout. what's the reason behind that.

kapali did get his 20 overs and bashar came in for one or two. if only our batsmen could stick around for a day and a half, this thing could still be a draw. but there's no chance for that

[Sham]

Rafiq, There are still three days left of this game and BBC Sports (bbc.co.uk/sport) quotes Kirsten saying that they will bat for about an hour or so tomorrow and declare, so we will have to bat for almost three days if we want to draw this match.

Secondly, Shubho (btw, is this LSE Shubho?), you are right, our bowling does suck. We arent good enough to get people out. Which is why I have been saying that the best we can do is try to cut off the runs and get them to play rash shots and get themselves out. Thats why it broke my heart to see Monju bowl five maiden overs out of six while Sanwar gave away 53 runs in his 8 from the other end. When Sanwar was taken off, Baisya bowled some very miserly overs. I wish Baisya was given the ball with Monju at the start of the day. If they could bowl some maidens in tandem, Gibbs probably would have done something stupid.

[dog__]

I think your bowlers are ok, taking into account their age. Monjural looks useful, and Talha and Alok have buckets of potential given their ages.

What none of you have commented on is your field placings, which have been useless. McGrath, Pollock, Ambrose, Walsh, etc would find it difiicult to bowl effectively to a 7-2 field placing. You expect Monjural etc to be able to do it? With a new ball? Madness.

[Sham]

The reason why none of us have commented on field placings is that we haven't a clue as to where the fielders are placed. Unfortunately, CricInfo does not provide that information.

As I keep saying, our bowlers lack penetration. 'But we are a Test playing nation now, so we have to have three slips, a gully, short leg blah blah blah.' CRAP!! If it were me, I'd open with a sweeper cover to stop the runs. Some may say that its defensive but thats the best we can do. Gibbs smashes every other ball through the covers for four. I have seen our team employ a short leg, for Christ's sake, are any of our bowlers ever going to bowl a bouncer so quick that one of these batsmen is going to get caugt at short leg fending it off their rib cage? Lets get real here.

[Sham]

One other thing dog_, add about 4 years to the official age of every member of our team, especially the young ones.

[Shubho]

dog___, brought up a very good point. I mentioned this during one of my postings concerning the ODI series: field placement. Why are we too scared to field a slip? I have never seen more than one slip whenever we've fielded. The seamers certainly could do with a lot more aggression on the field.

Secondly, yes Sham, I am LSE Shubho. And the above notwithstanding (plus the fact that the pitch really favoured batsmen), our bowlers are still crap. Anybody who's telling me these bowlers are learning, they're still young...get real!!! Talha Jubair's at least 22. Monjurul will be hitting his 30s sooner than most of us would like to believe, and the same goes for Tapash. As Sham rightly pointed out, we lack penetration. And truth be told, I don't have the foggiest idea what we could do to rectify this problem.

[Tehsin]

As Shubho pointed out:
Manju - close to 30
Talha - 20 to 22
Taposh - 22 - 25

South Africa has younger bowlers with lot more maturity, so does other countries. They of course have the be benefit of a veteran first class structure. We are only in our fourth year and the quality there leaves lot to be desired.

Field placing would definitely help. If you are not forcing the batsmen to take risk, they won't and with our bowling, we could use all the help we can get.