Match Thread: Bangladesh v Srilanka - 1st Test - Colombo (RPS)

[Rubu]

Date: Monday, Sept 12 to Friday, Sept. 16 - 2005
Time: 4:30 AM GMT | 12:30 AM EDT | 10:30 AM Bangladesh Time every day.

The first test of the 2005 Srilanka tour Test Series starts in about 7 hours. Bangladesh faced some severe blow before this test and ended up with a pace attack where the senior member has the experience of playing only one test. This is going to be a extreme test for the tigers as Srilankans are always severe against bangladesh and lions in their own den.

GMT now is:

Location: Colombo (RPS)

Weather: Weather does not look too good. Chances of rain is 60% for the whole week.
Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. High around 85F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Forecast

Bangladesh squad : According to prothom-alo and several other souce, the bangladesh squad has been finalized as below:

1. Javed Omar
   
2. Shahriar Nafees
   
3. Tushar Imran
   
4. Mohammad Ashraful
   
5. Habibul Bashar
   
6. Aftab Ahmed
   
7. Khaled Masud
   
8. Mohammad Rafique
   
9. Shahadat Hossain
   
10. Syed Russel
    
11. Enamul Jr.
    

Sri Lanka Probables:

1. Marvan Atapattu (capt)
   
2. Sanath Jayasuriya
   
3. Kumar Sangakkara (wk)
   
4. Mahela Jayawardene
   
5. Thilan Samaraweera
   
6. Tillakaratne Dilshan
   
7. Chaminda Vaas
   
8. Rangana Herath
   
9. Muttiah Muralitharan
   
10. Dilhara Fernando
    
11. Lasith Malinga
    

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Good Luck Tigers!

[Sorry]

time to show some guts and character.
fans, please be positive at least until the match starts.

[BangladeshFan]

who is herath? sl playing 3 pacers in this pitch?

[Rubu]

i guess they are aware of the fact that bd batsmen are more familier playing spinners than pacers.

[Sorry]

if you have murali in your side you don't need 2nd spinner in test cricket.

[mwrkhan]

Much as I would like to be positive, I doubt if we have ever gone into a test (apart from our debut) with such a raw and toothless bowling attack as this. Our best hope lies with the weather.

If we bat first, I hope that we can bat out a full day at least.

[CricTiger]

Why do not we think for a sec that some thing might come out positive from this bowling attack.
Without seeing them much we are all drawing a negative conclusions.Why do not we encourage them for a good show?
As a BD supporter,sometimes I FEEL we are more pessimistic than optimistic.

[mhferdaus]

most of the expectations would be from Uncle Rafique and Enamul Jr. , as for pacers debutant, they just have try within their limit and do not try something too expectecular

[Bengal Tiger]

Hopefully Enamul jnr will run the show. I heard he did really well in the 3 day match. I hope Rasel continues his progress and Rajib manages to control his pace and line and length at the same time.

[BD Tigers]

Insha Allah..we will give them a shock today.

[gravitY]

i feel Ashraful would do something good in this Test... no reason though, just feeling..

[nsd3]

Weather is favouring us, I guess. But playing a Test, one needs to concentrate on the game though. However, given the bowling attack, if we bowl first, we need to focus on line and length consistently rather than on taking wickets with doing something extra ordinary. On the other hand, if we bat first, we need atleast 4 batsmen to click as a team with each scoring 50+ (one should carry the bat for atleast a patient 75+). The rest could be decided on weather finally, who knows!

[nsd3]

If Javed, Bashar, Tushar, Aftab, Ashraful together can give us 250 runs, the team then can get a 300+ score. That might be just enough to save the match with the hands of rain. Bowling tight line and length (No need for anything extra ordinary, our ordinary bowlers should play ordinary) is also essential for a positive result.

[Rubu]

Originally posted by gravitY
i feel Ashraful would do something good in this Test... no reason though, just feeling..

under one condition ashraful ALWAYS fails. under the pressure of fame. his debut century is what everyone talking about while going into this test. and that, is what gonna make him fail again in this test.

hey, ash, prove me wrong. please.

[al Furqaan]

i have a feeling ash is gonna get a decent to great score in BD 2st innings.

i was right the last time i said this (against AUS). i was not ready for how right i was though.

[cricman]

guys don't jinx him

[bourny3]

I think BD will lose quite badly. Last time sri Lanka played here they made 952 runs. But that was 7 years ago.

[SS]

how we will bowl 90 overs if lanka decide to bat first for the whole day...we don't want to loose the lanky left seamer russel bowling 25 overs. He is not used to ball that longer, also I saw Shahadat before bowling 17 overs but he wasn't able to bowl with raw pace consistently. I believe that Rafique and Enamul has to bowl continuously for atleast 25 overs. Who will bowl the rest of the overs if we just take four specialist bowlers. Will they gona take another pacer(Talha) or they will use ocassional spinners? I know they will pile up a huge score but I don't want to see our players loosing hope looking at the lankan scorecard.

[CricTiger]

I think our Captain should use our spinners a lot and give our pacers 4/5 overs at a time.Captain should not put pressure on these new pacers and thus make them injury prone again.
Already I read that Rasel started complaning feeling pain in his leg after the Practice match.
The cricket structure we have back home does not give our players much oppurtunity to deliver a long spell or make them physically fit for these kinds of load.
So take it easy on pacers and use them prudently.
We are all waiting for GOOD play tomorrow.

[Mahir]

injury worries and thoughts concerning the mighty opposition aside, I am ready to cheer on everything positive that BD does in this match, staying at the peak of optimism.

go Bangladesh go!

[shongkhonil]

All I hope to see is that our young tigers fight untill the end!!

[cricman]

Do you know what's been bothering me? we used to win a day or 2 in a Test Match. No I don't think we can do that anymore.

Maybe I'm wrong we did win day 2 vs England.

[Navarene]

Now that Rajib is playing, I wonder if someone from the think tank has made him clear that he has to maintain a decent line and length and pitch the ball on the right spot instead of just rushing for the wayward pace and get smacked all around the park.

Personally I think that it will be only Rajib in our bowling arsenal who can embarrass the strong Lankan batsmen with his sheer pace only if he maintains his good line and length.

[cricman]

Currently is Rajib as good as Lawson? Or Tino Best? I hope when we bat he takes a good look at Vass and how he bowls.

Edited on, September 12, 2005, 3:29 AM GMT, by cricman.

[shongkhonil]

Originally posted by Navarene

Personally I think that it will be only Rajib in our bowling arsenal who can embarrass the strong Lankan batsmen with his sheer pace only if he maintains his good line and length.

Lankan Batsmen are used to facing quality pace attack and if the line and length is not good, then pace is not gonna do anything to scare the lankans.