Since we have a good prospect of a competitive match here NZ is probably going to employ a different plan against our batsmen. Let me focus here on our openers.
Tamim: Since he played the short ball pretty well I think they will go with a heavily packed off-side field and will keep feeding him short of good length 6 inches outside off stump. Also, I think they will keep a deep mid-wicket for him as well.
Zunaied: I haven't seen him play yet, but based on what I read he is a compact player. I think they will try to bowl him some more short pitch deliveries to his throat.
I hope our first 5 batsmen are mentally prepared to defuse all NZ tactics. What other strategy NZ can take against our batsmen?
New Zealand's bowling in general is pretty ordinary. Vettori's the only one who seems to be world class. Our openers seemed completely in control yesterday and I was pretty impressed by the way they weren't hesitant in blocking away when the bowling was good, because that's what test cricket's about and that's how it should be played. If they're bowling at a good line and length, then there's no point in trying to improvise and manufacture shots unless you're trying to build up a steep lead before going for the kill on a fifth day.
If they can stick to this attitude, I don't see how they would succumb to any tricks that the Kiwis might have up their sleeves, because the track's very good for batting and their medium pacers are pretty crappy to put it blatantly. As usual, we can only bring about our own demise, like we did in the first inning.
If only we'd scored a few more on day 1...
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Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
I was pretty impressed by the way they weren't hesitant in blocking away when the bowling was good, because that's what test cricket's about and that's how it should be played. If they can stick to this attitude, I don't see how they would succumb to any tricks that the Kiwis might have up their sleeves, because the track's very good for batting and their medium pacers are pretty crappy to put it blatantly.
Hit the nail in the head of the middle order, Oh Dear!
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Well to quote myself from the match thread after day 1:
Quote:
Hmm...almost everyone in the top and middle orders threw his wicket away yesterday. Junaid might argue that he got out to an unplayable delivery, but he was_playing_away_from his body, with the face of the bat angling towards the slips, as if to feed them. Bashar was not comfortable at all, and it was only a matter of time before he got out. Ashraful left a ball that was curving even before it pitched. Aftab looked completely out of sorts and got out trying to break the shackles and generate a big hit out of nowhere. Nafees went for a completely unnecessary sweep at a time when all he had to do was play out the overs up to lunch. Dude, you've got 5 days to improvise if someone's getting you uncomfortable. Why perform paglami at the brink of lunch?
Tamim is the only one who impressed, and I must say that he's improved his game by miles. MILES. He no longer goes fishing outside the off and looks tremendously in-form when he dispatches the bad ones. Too bad he had run out of partners - I'm sure he would have gone further with some support from the rest of the batters. He's also been awfully consistent in this series with scores of 100+, 60+, 40+ and 50+ so far.
Looks like Tamim and Ashraful are the only ones who can restore some respect in the upcoming innings. If they don't score, we don't score at all.
And to quote myself on how the openers negotiated with the Kiwis on the second day:
Quote:
This was special. Truly special.
Two debutants, one of them even at the brink of getting the chop at the beginning of the tour. He starts off with a 50 in the test series to compliment his good run from day 1 of the tour. The other guy does what most Bangladeshi batsmen would do at a test match - gifts his wicket away by fishing outside the off. The team gets bundled out for 137.
And what do they do in the second inning, carrying a deficit in excess of 200 on their backs? They rotate; not the strike, but the authority. When one goes crazy, the other tones down, and that pretty much sums up this partnership so far. When one goes for the shots, the other backs him up by holding on to one end. They get behind the good ones and defend with no gap between bat and pad, keeping everything on the ground. When confronted with a bad one, they don't hesitate to dispatch it, and boy oh boy do they do it in style.
This has been a perfect test partnership. The only thing that they could have done better was to rotate the strike more often, but everything else that should be there in a test partnership was there. They attacked at the beginning at toned down when the end was near.
An 18 y/o and a 19 y/o. Hope they can score big hundreds tomorrow.
Ten grand
For Tamim, it was merely a matter of continuing the good work. He probably would have gone further in the first inning had he had some support from the others. He did get it in the form of Zunaed in the second inning, which eased the a lot of the pressure off him.
For Zunaed, the key was to be more watchful and solid in defense. To summarize, I guess you could say the difference essentially was the way he dealt with things, because had he gone out cheaply and the middle order been exposed, then only God knows how many more Harrison+poverty articles we'd have to read today.
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I think the Kiwis would try to bully us tomorrow.
They would try to physically intimidate our players who are indeed like "hobbits" when compared with them. Its very easy to trigger a pair of 18 year old and 19 year old with some verbal abuse. Young blood runs hot in vein.
It would be very important for the boys not to give in to their sledging.
Im sure Jamie Siddons, being an aussie, knows very well how to sledge against the kiwis and what names to call them. Surely he would let the boys know all about the sheeps.
....And guys..get ready for some seriously biased umpiring tomorrow, esp from that fatso wannabe spiderman.
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Originally Posted by Rabz
I think the Kiwis would try to bully us tomorrow.
They would try to physically intimidate our players who are indeed like "hobbits" when compared with them. Its very easy to trigger a pair of 18 year old and 19 year old with some verbal abuse. Young blood runs hot in vein.
Im sure tough tamim and 6ft 2 Zunaid are not intimidated by the likes of lanky kyle mills and baldy martin.
The only player on NZ who is phisically intimidating is Oram, to be honest we only have three small guys on our team - aftab, ash and mush
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The black caps will surely try to frustrate these two by drying up the runs. They employed the packed off side field for both the openers yesterday and we will see more of the same today. They will also try to unsettle the openers before they get set today. We all know the Bangladeshi teams archilles heal... 1 wicket is followed by not 2 but multiple wickets. The new zealanders will be well aware of that fact. I see Martin and Vettori as the dangermen of the new zealand attack.
This is the 64K taka question. How do we keep the Dr Jekylls of Day 2 from reverting back to the Mr Hydes of Day 1. Has that not been our eternal problem since our first Test? Remember the two innings - there Hyde came after.
I dont think NZ cud do anything to us. Its US that we have to worry abt. Its a norm that after a good partnership, we give it away. remember ODI 1??? Anyway, I really hope this pair goes as long as possible and players like Bashar, Ash, Aftab just capitalize the start and score a lot more (may be around 400 Insha Allah).
Below is the summary of everyone's view for tomorrow's counter strategies against NZ.
1. Keep our cool (as suggested all the time)
2. Be prepared for some intimidation from Kiwis
3. Don't take the current partnership for granted; put it differently, don't relax too much just because we have built a good partnership
4. Better not improvise too much
5. Can't do anything about umpiring decision
Here are few that I want to add
6. It is very important that the openers add at least 30 plus
7. Do not try to keep up with the run rate
8. It is important that Aftab focuses only on getting off the mark with a 99% safe shot. Once he gets going we can hope for a good score by end of tomorrow
Credit must go to NZ for adopting a different strategy of bowling out BD on the third day. They are smart cricketers and I just wish that BD can use their grey matter better.
I hope that they have studied the videos of their own performance and also the Kiwis batting and bowling and come up with a better plan to have a better showing in the second test.