The team that never wins !!

[handle]

Give us a mediocre team, and we'll adjust our standards accordingly to lose the game

[rafiq]

any comments on today's lineup? two pacers and mahmud don't make sense to me. they stocked the team with medium pace bowlers and spinners, ashraful did not bowl. manju and masri did not finish their quota, ehsanul and mahmud did. i wonder if pilot is slipping back to bad old habits of poor bowling selection and rotation?

the run chase was actually fun for a little while, but then the inevitable collapse happened. as long as bashar scores 1, we will continue to lose without a fight.

[Pundit]

It was just an exposure game. They are just making sure that many folks got a shot so that hey are ready during contingency.

If there was anything wrong with Pilot, it was the fact that someone scored 35 or so off 25b.

[Tehsin]

I understand that you can lose but getting allout in the 28th over is just too much.
What is up with Sumon ? If he doesn't score in the next ,match, he should be benched for the Canada game because we need to atleast win that match and he isn't going to score more then a duck or a 1.


By the way, Namibia beat a very strong team quite comfotably.

[handle]

Actually Gauteng finished last (next to Namibia) in their latest limited over competition, so I wouldn't call them very strong.

Kwazulu-Natal is one of the better teams.

[Piranha]

How much longer do we have to take this BS? With the way things are going, I am hoping that the WC finishes quickly (i.e. time flies by).

And what's with rokon not being opener?

[Ockey]

All of the bowlers for KZN were pace or medium pace bowlers except for Bodi, who was the pick of the bowlers. According to the profile of Bodi in Cricinfo, Bodi's bowling style is Slow Left Arm Chinaman! Can anyone explain what that means. Why can't BD have a Chinaman in the team?

On a serious note, the bowling line up was poor for BD. They should have used Tapash or Talha or both instead of Mahmud or Rafique. And Ehsanul should only be used as a last resort when others are not getting a break through.

It is extremely difficult to bowl the full quota of 50 overs with 4 fast bowlers in the alloted time but if the wicket is conducive to pace then go with TTMM and Rafique. At least use three of the four pace bowlers, rather than using two of them and going with under strength and less experienced bolwers.

I really hope Sumon comes up big in the next practice game. If he doesn't then he should be replaced with Sanwar or Tushar for the Canada game. Sumon has consistantly failed in ODIs of late and BD can't afford to give him any more chances to regain his from and confidence.

[Ockey]

I liked Al Shahriar's position in the batting line up. Number three or four is the where he should play. But the other openers- Hanan and Rafiqul are still wet behind the ears and I doubt they'll put up a good knock without the support of Al Shahriar.


[Edited on 3-2-2003 by Ockey]

[Sham]

Ockey, a Chinaman is a left-arm leg-spinner. See a left-arm slow bowler is the same as a right-arm off-spinner in terms of wrist and finger action, but because he is bowling with his left-arm, the ball spins the opposite way, and is hence a leg-spinner to right handed batsmen. A Chinaman is the same as a right-arm leg spinner, but again, because he does it with his left-hand, the ball spins from off to leg, and hence is an off-spinner to right handed batsmen. Thats a bit confusing isn't it? Okay, basically, a chinaman turns the ball from the off stump to the leg stump, the same as a right handed off spinner.

[Ockey]

Think I got it.

[Sham]

Now, about our game, it was a bit strange. Seezan did not get an over in Namibia and then bowled 7 overs last night. But the really wierd thing is, if CricInfo is to be believed, he bowled 7 overs of OFF SPIN!! I hope CricInfo screwed up about that. I can't believe he was a seamer in Dhaka and then turned into an off spinner in SA. Bizzare!

As far as I am concerned, our game has three major problems at this point.

1) Top order batting is pitiful. Somehow, we need to stop this early procession of wickets. I wouldn't mind Rokon batting at 4 but we don't have two good openers to make up for it. I have criticized the decision to make Rokon into an opener in the past, but that was in the context of Test Cricket. In the one-day version, Rokon is the best batsman we have to open the innings. I don't think it is a good idea to play both Hannan and Seezan. That makes the already fragile top-order too brittle. I would rather drop one, make Rokon open, and bring Sanwar into the fold. Also, Sumon is batting too high up, I think he should bat at 4, not 3.

2) We need to bowl better in the end overs. This was a big problem against WI in BD, and was a big problem last night. We gave away 50 runs in our last 5 overs. Went from 141 after 30 to 191 after 35. I think Kamal and Pilot should decide who the best two bowlers are for the slog overs and then keep them for the end. Last night, Pilot kept two overs each from Masri and Monju. But when the time came to bring them back on, he decided to keep bowling Rafique and Kapali because they were doing alright. They got hammered in their last over, and then Pilot brought Masri and Monju back for an over each.

3) The third major problem is Pilot's bowler rotation. The man just does not think on his feet. He has, what I like to call, a two over lag. When a bowler gets hit and its time to take him off the attack, Pilot keeps him on for two more overs. And following on from (2), Pilot needs to sort out his slog over bowlers, because right now, its just not working. We actually do well to restrict the opposition till about the 40th over, and then everything falls apart!

[Pundit]

The only silver lining was Masri's performance - the fact that he bowled better than all others. But he better keep those sundries down. Just goes to show that he is our prime fast bowler, who is still kinda rusty.

His batting was encouraging too.

Regarding Rokon's batting - Wisden labeled it "violent."

Now we need a "carnage" or sorts, from MASRI.

[fwullah]

Did you guys notice it that the last batsman - Mashrafee was out run out - kind of the same way as Donald and Klusener - in the last world cup?

Only in last night's case, Monju was the one standing at the crease and Mashrafee was running to the other end.

I hope Mashrafee gets to learn something on how to run under tense situations like that.

[James90]

Chinaman relies more on wrist movement while the leg spinner relies more on the ring finger....same delivery basically though.....Brad Hogg and Michael Bevan are 2 left arm chinaman bowlers