BanglaCricket Article

On the first day of the 3rd warm-up match for the Bangladeshis at the Marrara Oval in Darwin, Northern Territory Chief Ministers XI won the toss and chose to bat. They were off to a slow and shaky start as they clowly crawled to 42/3 at lunch.

For NTCM, the 2 openers, I Redpath and NL Berry were off to a cautious start adding just 17 runs in just over an hour. NL Berry was the first batsmen to go out caught by the Bangladeshi captain, Khaled Mahmud off the bowling of Tapash Baisya. Mohammad Rafique, a left arm spinner for Bangladesh took the second wicket of AN Williams to have the hosts at 42/2. Just a few minutes before lunch, the Bangladeshi captain himself dismissed I Redpath to have the hosts reeling in at 42/3 at lunch with Michael Clarke and KE Vowles as the 2 not out batsmen.

Micheal Clarke, one of the 2 known Australian players in NTCM squad and also the NTCM captain, was the only one to wage a fight against the much-improved Bangladeshi bowling. He hit a patient knock of 79 off 152 balls(9x4) and was ably supported by KE Vowles and DL Treumer, both of them hitting 20s. At tea, NTCM were 105/4 with KE Vowles being the only man to be out, trapped lbw by Monjural Islam. The Bangladeshi captain, Khaled Mahmud again struck just after tea to dismiss KJ Skewes for 3. After his dismissal, DL Treumer gave some able support to Micheal Clarke putting up a fighting stand of 52 to take the score to a respectable 157/5.

After the dismissal of Micheal Clarke for 79, the Bangladeshi bowlers were able to trigger a collapse to have NTCM all out for 189 with the last 4 wickets falling for the space of just 14 runs. Nathan Hauritz, another known Australian player in the squad, was able to provide a bit of resistance but it was all too little too late. He was stranded not out on 17 off 52 balls(1x4).

For tommorow, one can only hope that it is not the typical batting collapse for Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi batsmen found a bit of form in their last match with Javed Omar and Habibul Bashar hitting 50s in the first innings and Mohammed Ashraful follwong it up with a 61 in the second innings. So all eyes are going to be on these batsmen to help Bangladesh build up a lead and hopefully be able to win this match as well. So, all i can say now is Good Luck Bangladesh !