What to hope today vs NZ

[fwullah]

I hope Bangladesh bats first today - who wins the toss doesn't matter.

Because if we bowl and field first, then if the weather comes around, then our batsman will be really short of confidence. More changes to the batting line up (only 3 changes in the batting and only 1 change in the bowling line up) means that more players will be out of match practice.

And I would certainly not want our batsman to get that before our world cup last match against Kenya.

At least - we will get a chance to see some individual performances with the bat. But if we bowl and field first, then our batting will be - where they were a few days ago - against South Africa.

With the best score of only 32 runs (by Alok Kapali vs SL) and 3 for 62 in 10 overs (by Monjurul Islam vs WI), we can't really afford to hope to look forward to anything for the Kenya match.

So, if either our bowlers can take a few more wickets - say 4 wickets against New Zealand and / or a fifty or at least a 40 up innings by a batsman, then I will be glad.

And the only bet that I will be interested in is to see whether our players can put up a better performance - individually or teamwise against Kenya and continue to be the "most consistent team" over the years.

I am saying that looking at this perspective that over the years if Bangladesh has performed well in the first match of a series or a tour, then they have performed worst in the last match and vice versa. Considering the fact that we played our worst cricket against Canada, so a good fight against Kenya is on the cards.

But whether our players can be "that consistent" - we will just have to wait and see.

And hope that Kenya match also does not wash away like today's match has a chance to wash away.

On the other hand, if our batsman gets all out for 50 today - (as Tehsin mentioned somewhere) and there is no change in attitude from any player of Bangladesh, then we will have no choice but to pray that Kenya match does really wash away.

[deshitrader]

fwullah,

i have not seen the track, but i think batting first would be the wrong decision. according to the kimberley weather report i posted earlier, it has been raining there sporadically all night. given all that moisture on the ground and given that NZ has publicly recognized our vulnerability to a pace attack and has beefed up their pace attack lineup as a result, our batsmen would fall like flies if they batted first.

i say bowl first if we win the toss. at least we get a chance to put up a bowling performance similar to that of the WI match. there was also a lot of moisture on the ground following the overnight rain during the WI match.

[Piranha]

(blank post)

[shahid]

I am not being optimistic,

BD would beat NZ and lose to Kenya.