Match Thread: Bangladesh-A vs England U19 Three Day Match, 6-8 July 2008

[Eshen]

Sanderson shines before the rain
John Ward at Loughborough

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/engl...ry/360259.html

Under-19 cricket does not have the widest of followings in England, as reflect by crowd numbers. Reportedly, even those matches played at major county grounds attract no more than 40 or 50. There were fewer than that at Loughborough today, and quite a portion of those who did attend could be classed as MAGS (Mums and Girlfriends). Loughborough is not the easiest ground in the country for outsiders to find; and a match like today's against Bangladesh A becomes even less relevant when, in addition to its understandable non-first-class status, it is further demeaned by being made 12-a-side and hampered by rain.

Before the start of the match, England A were handicapped by the loss of their captain, Alex Wakely, to a thumb injury. Tom Westley took over the captaincy and Chris Allanson of Yorkshire replaced him in the team. Junaid Siddique captained Bangladesh team, about half of whose players are under 19-years-of-age.

The first day's play was totally washed out after numerous intermittent showers during the day, but there were higher hopes for the second, with rain originally predicted only for after tea. Bangladesh decided to bat on winning the toss.

The most notable features of the day were a good innings of 62 by the tourists' left-handed opener, Imrul Kayes, and two wickets in a spell of good bowling by Ben Sanderson, who has played for Yorkshire this season. The Bangladesh captain scored only 4, opening the batting, but Imrul, despite several edgy strokes through the slips, kept his end up and scored well, with nudges off his body and an unexpected six over long-off.

At number three was Rajin Saleh, who has played 22 Tests, but he was never fluent in his laborious innings of 16. He was the first victim of Sanderson, who bowled a good line, and eventually had him caught at the wicket for 16, groping outside the off stump.

The score at lunch was 102 for 2, but half-an-hour after the break the first bout of rain arrived, and it never let up for long enough for play to resume. That brief period was all to England's advantage: the first ball after the interval had Nadif Chowdhury caught at the wicket for 12, and, less than five minutes before the rain, Imrul gave the wicket-keeper, Ben Brown, his third catch of the innings to date. That brief period brought 13 runs and two wickets.

Besides Sanderson, James Harris of Glamorgan bowled a tight opening spell of nine overs and picked up Junaid's wicket. And had a couple of rather difficult chances not gone down in the field, England might have been even more pleased with their day. As it is, there is only individual honour to play for now, even if the third and final day is dry.

© Cricinfo

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by akabir77
I am not sure hwy they sent rajin in UK when they don't even give him chance in BD or asia. He never could play swing balls. He is better in Asian countries. So if you want to use him use in that condition. why even waste a place in the UK team when you know he have no clue when ball is moving... Again shows the short coming of the selectors...

unless he plays in those conditions he''ll never get use to them. the question should have been whether or not there were better prospects than rajin, if not then his place is valid. of course if the selectors aren't ever going to think of him for the national team again then his place is also wasted by being brought along.

i think the batting did ok thanks to imrul, kind of depends on how naeem and dhiman play. as for nadif, never really understood why he's around the national and A team.

[Aritro]

Originally Posted by akabir77
I am not sure hwy they sent rajin in UK when they don't even give him chance in BD or asia. He never could play swing balls. He is better in Asian countries. So if you want to use him use in that condition. why even waste a place in the UK team when you know he have no clue when ball is moving...

To give him a chance to learn how to deal with the moving ball, obviously...

It's an A team tour, the result is secondary.

[Aritro]

On a sidenote, this might actually be the worst A team we've sent on tour for years. The A teams during the 04-06 period were loaded with prospective internationals but how many players from this team can be realistically expected to make the grade?

Admittedly there's a marked difference between that era and this one in that the players from the 04-06 period were the first generation of Bangladeshi youngsters to come through a decent underage coaching structure, and were far superior to the older crop of players they replaced in terms of technique and ability. A further consideration is that these players are now well established in the national team and are much harder to dislodge than the players we had in the early years, but how many genuine prospects does this A team really have?

I'd say Zunaied and Shuvo are the only ones who can be expected to have a real impact at the top level, and to a lesser extent Imrul Kayes who seems to be a strong performer at all levels.

Beyond that Dhiman, Rubel, Rajin and Nazmul might all find themselves playing for Bangladesh thanks to the selectional merry-go-round, but I suspect they'll all join the ever lengthening list of Bangladeshi crickets who were thrown into the deep end and found wanting. Many seem to rate Dhiman as a better prospect than Mushfiq but I don't agree.

All that being said though, I suppose the depressing truth of the matter is that even Nafees, Aftab, Sakib, Mushfiq, Mehrab, Enamul, Nafis Iqbal and co., the players who emerged in what I've nominated as some sort of golden era, have, in spite of some decent performances, looked largely out of their depth at the top level.

[Gowza]

naeem, imrul, junaid, shuvo, rubel hossain all have bright futures imo. then there is dhiman, rajin, nazmul, robin, i think dhiman and robin might have alright international careers, rajin does have talent but he's kind of already had his chance and fallen away but you never know he might be able to pick himself up and do well. rasel is also in the squad, and some people rate farhad hossain as a good longer format prospect.

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by Gowza
unless he plays in those conditions he''ll never get use to them.

Rajin has toured England twice with the national team but he still struggles to score against U/19 boys ! If he were to show any improvement, he should have shown it by now. He seems out of his depth even on subcontinental pitches that offer decent amount of bounce, it's nothing but wishful thinking to see him succeed in England.

the question should have been whether or not there were better prospects than rajin, if not then his place is valid. of course if the selectors aren't ever going to think of him for the national team again then his place is also wasted by being brought along.

Selectors had better choices such as Mehrab Jr, Tushar, and Nafees Iqbal. I don't know what is Nafees' current fitness, so selectors may have a reason not to pick him. Mehrab is screwed by selectors as he was chosen to warm benches during Asia Cup. Tushar should feel really pissed for not being selected given his record for the A-team.

[Gowza]

well i didn't say i expected rajin to succeed, but it's true that if he doesn't play in those conditions he'll never get better in them. it's up to the selectors to decide whether rajin is worth giving more chances to or whether there is a better prospect out there to take on the tour, they chose rajin obviously. personally for this english leg of the tour i would have sent rajin back home and kept imrul, like you said earlier even if they play him as first drop and not opener it would be worth it.

as for mehrab, not sure why he's in the one-day mix, worth a shot in the longer format though i reckon. also agree with NI, he's worth investing in.

[Zaheed Mahmood]

Rajin has been a continuous dissapointment playing too slow and acquiring paltry runs specially in seam conditions, if we are sending A-team to test players for future prospect and entries to national team, then Tushar is far ahead of Rajin for selection in A team.

[Gowza]

play for the 3rd and final day has started.

after 44.3 overs:

4/141
naeem 17 not out
dhiman 20 not out

[Gowza]

the 150 is up, 4/151 after 47.4 overs

naeem 22 not out
dhiman 25 not out

[Gowza]

naeem hits a 6 and the 50 partnership is brought up.

[pichchi]

Is Naeem lefty?? I saw him in u-19 and thought he was right-handed... or maybe i confused him with Nafis bhai..

[mahbubH]

Originally Posted by pichchi
Is Naeem lefty?? I saw him in u-19 and thought he was right-handed... or maybe i confused him with Nafis bhai..

Naeem is right handed batsman. This photo is from his cricinfo profile.

[pichchi]

Why does cricinfo say he is left-handed? Are they being crappy again or just lazy...

Naeem Islam (lhb) 40 64 5 1 62.50 not out
Dhiman Ghosh (rhb) 29 46 6 0 63.04 not out

[nasimul]

Dhiman out

[pichchi]

ok.. no point hanging around anymore.. was expecting a big knock from Naeem... He needs to convert starts more often if he is to get a test call-up, with Rokibul ahead of him in the queue

[bujhee kom]

lunch


bd-a 195/7 declared\ after 63 overs!
eng-u19 3/1 after 3 overs!
mahbubul alam got one of their openers lbw-ed!
yey! go bd!

[PoorFan]

Bangladesh A 195/7d
England Under-19s 34/2 (16.1 ov)


Looks like BD bowling good. 'Monder vhalo' atleast.

[al Furqaan]

this is basically BD U-22 versus England U 19

[Miraz]

Bangladesh A 195/7d
England Under-19s 87/5 (28.2 ov)

Good bowling from Bangladesh A bowlers.

[MohammedC]

Eng 94/5

Mahbub Alam Robin 2/30
Rubel has not bowled

[Eshen]

Redfern hits fifty as match drifts to draw
John Ward at Loughborough

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/engl...ry/360414.html

The match can be adjudged a good contest spoiled by rain. More than half of the available playing time was lost to the weather, but from what took place it can be said that these were two well-balanced side who deserved a four-day match unaffected by rain. The third day produced some better weather, and even some sun now and again, but the sides were already doomed to play out a draw. Nevertheless there was some good competitive cricket on view.

Bangladesh A, 115 for 4 overnight, began the day with confidence, with Naeem Islam and Dhiman Ghosh driving confidently during an enterprising partnership of 63. The England bowling was mediocre and James Harris, so economical on the first day, had a bad morning. The stroke of the match, one that perhaps even Kevin Pietersen has yet to play, was a remarkable back-foot short-hand swat, almost a tennis stroke, by Naeem that deposited a short ball from Ben Sanderson onto the sightscreen for six.

These were cameos rather than major innings, though, and three wickets were to fall for the addition of 10 runs. Ghosh skied a pull to midwicket and Naeem swung across the line to be trapped lbw. Bangladesh declared on 195 for 7 allowing their bowlers three overs before lunch. Sanderson, with 4 for 52, was the best of the bowlers overall.

This was enough to show England they had a fight on their hands, even if an outright result was out of the question. The seamer, Mahbubul Alam, beat the bat several teams even in his first over, and with his third ball had Chris Allinson adjudged lbw, despite stretching far down the pitch with his front leg. No runs were scored until the third over, and England went in on 3 for 1.

After lunch, there were fewer misses but more edges to the slips, at least one of which could have been caught, and a good number of runs also gathered. England struggled as they rarely do in 'warm-up' matches, but they always kept a positive approach. There were useful innings from James Taylor (26), Tom Westley (14) and Alex Hales (24), but no more than useful - as with Bangladesh, batsmen were really needed who dug in for the long haul.

There was speculation at tea, when England were 94 for 5, as to whether Bangladesh might be able to bowl them out in the final session and claim a moral advantage. But the one England specialist batsman with his eye on the long haul, Dan Redfern, was still there, and he found an able partner in the wicket-keeper, Ben Brown. They appeared quite comfortable as they shared a sensible stand of 55, which took them to within 15 minutes of the earliest permissible cut-off time of five o'clock, before Brown fell to a catch at midwicket for 32. Redfern finished unbeaten on 43, an innings that brought him much credit.

Mahbubul was the most successful bowler, with 2 for 56, but he deserved better. Also worthy of note was the left-arm spinner Suhrawadi Shuvo, who tied up one end very skilfully, taking 1 for 19 in his 10 overs.