2nd Test-Sabina Park (Bangladesh vs. West Indies): A Post Mortem

[Shehwar]

Before the start of the 2nd test, the general feeling among the cricket experts was that Bangladeshis were going to struggle in the match & so they did. Frankly speaking, before the match I didn’t even expect our team to cross 200 in any of the innings. I had a pretty good reason to think like that & so did the other cricket experts. The Sabina Park wicket has always produced very fast & bouncy pitches over the years. As I have mentioned before, the last test played here before this one saw The West Indians being bowled out for 47 in 25.3 overs. But this pitch was no where near as fast or bouncy as the others! After having a glance on the wicket and seeing the pitch report, I expected our team to put up a decent show and perhaps even draw the match. I was even thinking on the lines of making a fool out of myself for predicting that Bangladesh was going to lose badly, the batsmen will struggle and there will be an outright result. But sadly, to my utter disgust, all my predictions came good for all the wrong reasons. On a perfect batting strip our batsmen played reckless shots one after another to throw their wickets away. There was absolutely nothing in the pitch for the bowlers and we should have plundered more than 400 runs in the first innings with proper application. It was ok if they got out to good deliveries but can u people recall a single batsman getting out to a good ball? The late order tried their level best but it was too late. Surely those top order batsmen knew that there were millions of fans staying up till 4 in the morning just to watch them perform to their true potential or at least see them trying to do so! That is what hurts me most. Can’t they even try to stay at the wicket? Is it so damn difficult on such a true batting surface? The 2nd innings was even more disastrous. I thought they did rather well to reach 154-3 at one stage with the mental pressure of a huge deficit of 275. But what happened after that is simply inexplicable. It hurts our national pride when they throw up the white flags like that. From 154-3 they went to 164-9! 6 wickets in the space of 10 runs and eventually they were bold out for 176. There can only be one explanation for this and that is, I reckon they have a mental block. Because no self-respecting batting order can afford to have such dramatic collapse on such a regular basis! Remember that Pakistan-Bangladesh 2nd test last year? We were 310-2 on a dead batting wicket and then 320-8!!! Eventually bowled out for 361. These are only two examples of many such blemishes. U know what! we can do one thing..every single batsman should be asked publicly what on earth were they trying to do out there in the middle once they return home. I’m sure very few will come up with decent answers. The bowling though wasn’t bad on such a good batting track. And as for the fielding and catching … well, it would have embarrassed a club Sunday XI.

Shehwar