To Mohammad Ashraful

[al Furqaan]

First of all, great innings played!!! The Indian players, fans, commentators, were all stunned, shocked, and dejected by your performance. The nation owes Allah, and you a great thanks. Thank you for entertaining us. May the rest of your career be as blessed as this innings, and may Bangladesh find other batsmen as great as you are.

Salaam.

[Tehsin]

Congratulations on a job well done and a series well played. He could have gone on to do much more but the umpires were out in ful force yesterday.

Lookin forward to many many years of excellent cricket from this 20 year old kid.

[arafath79]

Originally posted by al Furqaan
First of all, great innings played!!! The Indian players, fans, commentators, were all stunned, shocked, and dejected by your performance. The nation owes Allah, and you a great thanks. Thank you for entertaining us. May the rest of your career be as blessed as this innings, and may Bangladesh find other batsmen as great as you are.

Salaam.

Let him play some more nice innings then show ur happiness.

[Tehsin]

One thing I have always noticed about some Bangali folks - karo bhalo shojjo hoina. Keo bhalo kichu korleo ei shob lok khali kharap dik guloi ghete ghete ber korey.

I've noticed in other countries, even the mediocres players/actor are spotlighted as superstars. It goes a long way into building a strong country. You'll notice how the Indians and the Americans are so patriotic countries. I've hardly heard them put down there country but apni ekta bangali party/shobhai jaan, shudhu kharap taai bheshi focus paai.

Ash did not toil on his way to the 158 not out, he was majestic, brave and at one point, you felt sorry for the Indian bowlers. It was just his day, anything they through at him recieved the proper treatment. He scored half the runs for the team, even when we were down at 312 for 9 (we lost Rafique and Pilot to the bad umpiring), Ash did not hessitate to hit Zaheer for three 4's in the 89th over and the next over, he sent the first ball from Pathan "miles into the stands" prompty the cricinfo commentator to write - what an innings, take a bow.

And ladies and gentleman, I took a bow .......


(i'll repeat the following for the naysayers:
Second innings:
19.2 Kumble to Mohammad Ashraful, OUT: another nail goes in! quicker delivery, Ashraful is bit late and gets hit on the pad right in front of the stumps, loud appeal and the finger goes up, big wicket this

Mohammad Ashraful lbw b Kumble 3 (13b 0x4 0x6)

tv replays pick up a faint inside edge, Ashraful unlucky, umpire Benson gets it wrong once again!

[DJ Sahastra]

The Indian players, fans, commentators, were all stunned, shocked, and dejected by your performance.

That's a really cheap shot. And below the belt too. Ravi Shastri stood up in the commentators box to applaud Ashraful when he reached his hundred - something that i haven't seen him do for any Indian batsman so far.

Sachin personally congratulated Ashraful and shook hands. Harbhajan patted his back on the way back.

True, Indian fans wouldn't like the match to finish any way other than a comprehensive victory and they would definitely NOT want any opposition player to do good.

But the above quote seems to imply that the Indian fans harbor some particular bad-wish for the BD players.

I didn't follow the match cos it was saturday night. But i did read all i could from various media including cricinfo and there has been unrestrained shower of praise and applaud for Ashraful's performance.

Such remarks as above are only disappointing.

[DJ Sahastra]

And to those who have repeated a million times about the "tv replays pick up a faint inside edge", i have only thing to say - It's NOT possible for umpires ears to be a snick-o-meter. A faint edge is a faint edge - there is always a 50% chance of decision going either way. Many a times there is a faint edge on to the forward short-leg and the umpires give the batsman not out.

It is a wrong decision, but not an UNUSUAL one. A wrong decision is one where margin of error is high, like a thick edge on to the pad, or a caught-behind when ball is miles away from the bat, or an LBW to a ball pitched outside the leg-stump and so on.

Finally, i am all for technology. If not much, it can atleast reduce the grievances. But let me assure you, that if technology was used to determine the LBWs and edges and nicks, i am not sure if BD will be on the right side of the benefit. If at all, the LBWs against BD batsman will only go up, unless there is a radical change in the batting line-up or batting style.

[Tehsin]

DJ ... the reason I posted the TV replay....... was for arafath. Decisions like that happen in a match but this guy was putting down Ashraful's 160* with his poor second innings score. It was a note to him that Ashraful was still playing well in the second innings. You can't just blow a guy away for failing in the second innings after he batted the whole day out. That's just rubbish.

[Zobair]

Al Furqan...I must agree with DJ...the indians were in awe of the innings he played...and even if there is some dejection (after all Ash is their opposition) what is the problem? Not need to be confrontational! It takes the focus away from what is one of the greatest innings I have seen (in terms of class, context, and sheer thrill) and let us all unite in praising this extraordinary knock and hope that he finally laid his demons to rest. Mohammad Ashraful could become the best young cricketer in World cricket if he can continue in this vein. Ravi Shastri was unqualified in his praise...and he even termed Ashraful as the best 20 year old in world cricket, which includes the likes of Pathan!

DJ! I always appreciate your sportsmanship. The replays showed it was not quite tha faint an edge. I would have thought the one down leg that Javed Omar snicked was a faint edge. In Ash's case, the ball definitely deflected into his pads. 9 times out of 10 that edge would have been detected by an umpire of decent quality. Umpire Benson has been plain aweful!!!

Edited on, December 19, 2004, 9:14 PM GMT, by pompous.

[nihi]

Originally posted by DJ Sahastra

That's a really cheap shot. ...

...and they would definitely NOT want any opposition player to do good...

...But the above quote seems to imply that the Indian fans harbor some particular bad-wish for the BD players...

...Such remarks as above are only disappointing.

I am being tempted to say that your dejection is manifested in your failure to interpret the quote. As per yourself, not wanting any opposition player to do good is not tantamount to harboring bad-wish to the same. You can always be dejected and at the same time be delighted to see an opposition player having a masterly shot. That's the sportsmanship, and (I hope) al furqaan hasn't hinted any denial on that sportmanship from the indians in the quote that you have quoted. Dejection is for fan and the delight is for the connoisseur, and can well be embodied in an individual.


Edited on, December 19, 2004, 9:15 PM GMT, by nihi.