The Curse is On...

[chinaman]

310/2 to 320/7. Isn't declaring more respectable before it becomes 320/10?

Painful to watch.

[fwullah]

well it is 361/10.

I hope that Dave now sees the real reason behind our demise and start working on it - immediately.

Almost everybody tries to pull whenever they see a short ball - they have no idea of whether the pull shot is the right shot for a short ball, etc. etc. etc.

[Nascer]

With respect to Dav, he can only do as much. he can't play for the batsmen or bowl for the bowlers.
He can only work with the players BCCB provides him with.

We should put aside our differences, and start working together on building our team.

I hope Faruque and co. realizes Alamgir is a bad choice. And I hope Rajin is not a one match wonder.

I hope everybody concerned will help find the real talents in Bangladesh and be fair in selecting the team.

Else, we will have few moments of glory followed by never-ending humiliating shame.

Good luck to Dav and Bangladesh.

[Tehsin]

I think they were simply overjoyed - maybe next time Dav will take the next couple of batsmen aside and preach to them on how to build on the good start and to play sensibly.

I am pretty sure that the players can carry it - look at Golla and Ash, they both have score 0's not too long ago, yet, they put on a 100 run partnership with improved personal stats.

We know that Rajin, Kapali and Mashud can do it too as they have proved before. They just need a reminder and play with some sense. They could have easily gone to 400-450.

[reinausagi]

There was a time when we would have colpsed for 125 before Shoaib Akhtar and Kaneria on their home court. Our expectations have risen!

[Tehsin]

People seem to forget where we came from ... 160 was our highest score in 6 innings before we hit those 288 and 274. With a little bit effort, we could have made it 400450, but 361 ??? Anyone here thought we'd score 361 ? Collapse is part of cricket, ours are just outrageous but still ... the team has proved that they have come a long way.

Now, if you ask me, I'd say that we may fold for a 200 in the second match because of the wicket and because Pakistanis have always showed flashes or brilliance out of nowhere (Shaoib can do this to any team).

It will be a hard match because the Pakistanis will probably try to race to a quick 300-400 and put them to bat again. If they can get to 450-500, the game might be over.

[Piranha]

Yeah, Tehsin bhai is right. We seem to be over- reacting. Collapses happen, and we should not be too shocked to see them every now and then. You cannot forget that Shoaib Ahktar is after all a pretty good bowler. Many many batsmen have struggled with his bowling.

All in all I am quite satisfied with 361.

Unfortunatly I am not too hopeful about our bowling. We just dont have enough good bowlers to worry the pakistani batsmen in batting conditions. Prepare for a long hard third day.....

[cricket_er]

I am telling you guys, this pakistan team might have done someting fishy, I know for fact that Waqar and Wasim was really good at picking the seem and get the ball to Reverse Swing as it gets older.

I read about the balls that got the batsmen out, they were unplayble, so question is how is that Aktar, can't do anything in one and half day suddenly just destroys everything in 2 overs.

Listen I am not trying to find an excuse, but this kind of things are only done by Pakistany First bowlers.

[Tintin]

because Pakistanis have always showed flashes or brilliance out of nowhere (Shaoib can do this to any team).

Yes. Give the Pakistanis some credit. Despite the fact that Shoaib has very little solid stuff between his ears, there is no better bowler in the world when he gets into the rhythm (though it rarely happens more than a couple of times every year). Every batting line up in the world has had the experience of being destroyed by him. A golden opportunity has been wasted but it is not all of the batsmen's fault.



[Edited on 28-8-2003 by Tintin]

[Zobair]

Shoaib was just too good...he reverse-swinged and that too at extreme pace!!!! Of course there were a couple of injudicious pulls to help him along (Ash is a big culprit since the side was just recovering from losing a wicket and he could have been more cautious). But the rest hardly stood a chance. Being greeted by that kinda bowling as soon as you come to the wicket is gonna be pretty hard.

But I thought mahmud, mashrafee and alamgir did quite well for the last two wicket partnerships, taking the score from 320 to 361- a grand total of 41 runs...showed that we were gonna fight it out till the end. That was impressive.

Lets hope tomorrow our bowlers can also conjure up some magic and get the pks out for a comparatively small total.

I doubt if shoaib will be able to repeat that kind of a performance in this test again.

[deshitrader]

Tintin,

In the rare instances when this remarkable "rhythm" stuff overtakes Shoaib, does it tend to last just one innings or does it tend to extend into the second innings as well? ;-)

Also, do you have any idea whether there exists a significant intersection between the set of instances where this remarkable "rhythm" stuff has overtaken Shoaib and the set of instances where he has been accused of ball tampering? Again, thanks for any info. :-)

Deshibhai

[Tintin]

Deshibhai !

Normally it does not continue into the next innings. This, as you suggest, might have something to do with the fact that they change the ball between the innings

[deshitrader]

Hehe...nicely put, Tintin.

Message to Mashrafee: Pick at that seam, young lad...pick at it with a vengeance. You too will be widely acclaimed as a fiery pace bowler with an imposing physique and movie star-like good looks. Oh, and don't forget to shave the night before to maintain that rugged stubble beard at its best. :-)