A Tale of Opposite Extremes: The Kenya Match Post Mortem

[Sohel]

The final rehearsal before the curtain goes up against West Indies, and Bangladesh found themselves facing Kenya again, a opponent they have manage to thrash with conviction as recently as a week ago. The Tigers have proven themselves to be to be a class above associate nations and a resurgent Zimbabwe, despite those painful lapses we remember all too well, but complacency never pays the rent at this level of International cricket. Practice match or no practice match. I’ve said it before, as many men wiser than I before me, and I’ll say it again: if you play with fire, you’re bound to get burned sooner or later. We did and with Abdur Razzak nursing that hamstring somewhere else in town, there’s no hospital or medic in sight. Kudos to Kenya for gabbing that proverbial opportunity with both hands, and finishing us off, but this postmortem is one-sided, and all about Bangladesh, toasters, and being burnt to a crisp because “Heroes” was on TV in the other room. Our bowlers came as close as possible to brush off the charred remains and make it palatable, but not close enough. My MOM for the match goes to Team Kenya and our bowlers.

Perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh here, but just a “bad day at the office” seldom threatens to burn the whole damn building down. Maybe Bangladesh will come out this like a hot-pink phoenix with gaudy golden trims around the wings, weirder things have happened in and to our cricket, or then again, maybe they won’t. The familiar “wait-and-see” approach has found a soul mate in our broken hearts, and has hired an ultra-hip, equally flashy and outrageously posh interior decorator from Australia because it is going to stay a while. Interesting that it is we who end up paying the rent to our beloved tenant. Go figure.

This match was a good opportunity for our fine young captain to try a new combination of players. With the stellar Abdur Razzak being rested for four days due to a hamstring injury, Tamim Iqbal’s continued lack of form with the bat, and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s generosity to opposition batsmen alongside his own, some of us expected Mohammad Ashraful to try and give Junaid Siddique and Ziaur Rahman the opportunity to show what they can do, but no. He obviously continues to be privy to things beyond our grasp, and when it came to younger Tamim Iqbal in this particular match, he proved to be spot on.

Things started off ominously for the Tigers as the talismanic Mohammad Nazimuddin found himself walking back to the pavilion after an uncustomary 11 ball 5, impossible to tell how that lbw came to be. Tamim Iqbal, perhaps sensing his quick and impending descent from hero status, opted to be cautious and get his eye in before freeing those God-gifted arms of his. A wise choice that would prove to be.

Then it was time for our much loved and supremely talented AAA Battery to repair the damage quickly, as required by the gods of T20, and take us to the Promised Land with their much awaited application. The virtual opener, a hallmark of Tiger cricket in all versions of the sport, in the figure of Aftab Ahmed came to the crease, hit a promising 17 off 10 balls and walked back to where he came from, possibly playing a slightly mis-timed lofted shot over mid-wicket or long-on as usual.

Exit A1, enter A2. Mohammad Ashraful, captain and by far the most gifted batsman we have produced to date. He tried to repair the innings, played 2 balls, scored a single run and failed to deliver with the bat yet again before going back to the dressing room with a stellar 50 percent strike rate.

After the briefest of cameos from the still cursed Shakib Al Hasan and his 2 from 3 balls, enter A3, the “sobering” element of the AAA Battery in the form of the “new and improved” Alok Kapali, a young man with several gears and modes of play at his disposal. Not to be outdone by his captain and close friend, the wonderboy from the picturesque hills of Sylhet score 3 runs off 8 balls and outdid his captain and close friend with an astonishing srike rate of 37.50.

Sadly, this remarkable achievement was short lived, as the diminutive and immensely adorable Mushfiqur Rahim “Mushy” managed a cute 33.33 with his 2 runs from 6 balls. Before that, young debutant Nadif Choudhury was forced into the fire left behind by the AAA Battery, hit a couple of boundaries and scored 12 valuable runs off 9 balls, and finally succumbed as feared. Trying to put out a raging forest fire by having an infant urinate on the flames is way beyond any banal exercise in futility.

Enter the tail led by the heroic Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. 5 from 4 balls and time to give the other “seaming all-rounder” Farhad Reza a go. Farhad Reza, to his credit, managed to stay not out with a blissful 100 percent strike rate with 3 runs off 3 balls, as he watched the gentle Syed Rasel, not an all-rounder, out-score him before hurrying back to the dressing room and getting ready to bowl. Bangladesh all out for 116 runs after 16.3 overs. An abysmal total pretty much impossible to defend at this level of international cricket, right? Not so fast Tiger fans, because in cricket, as in life, things can get interesting when you least expect it.

But before it does, let me rate our batting.

This type of questionable “batting”, our worst since some of the Sri Lankan sitcoms, can only get a 0 or “not observed” out of the maximum 5 meaning “excellent” in my book, but Tamim Iqbal 56 from 41 balls under notorious circumstances elevates that rating to a 1 denoting “hmm”. Tamim Iqbal himself pulled off a 4 out 5 to make that happen. Kudos to the younger of the Iqbal brothers, and here’s to the hope that this innings will mark the long-awaited “return to form” everyone except Munaf Patel has been eagerly anticipating since his mauling of India in WC07. Hear us Allah …

Now on to our bowlers trying to laughably “defend” that spectacular total of 116 from a hungry pride of Serengeti lions who have picked up the scent only too well.

It is not uncommon to lose one’s faculties under such chilling circumstances, and Syed Rasel, our best shorter-version seamer by a mile, seemed to lose his when he decided to switch underwear with his Khulna Division teammate Mashrafe Bin Mortaza as an act of charity. Unfortunately, it was the type of charily he could ill afford. While our beloved “Norhail Express” found the line that has eluded his considerable prowess of late, the “Jessore Gorugarhi”, the traditional Bangladeshi two-wheeler often powered by a malnourished ox mutilated into docile behavior, found that same line breaking free, perhaps inspired by a Jackson Pollock painting in the hotel lobby, during the course of his first over. Then by the infinite grace of Allah, he managed to overcome his infatuation with abstract expressionism and went back to basic geometry. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza showed a remarkable T20 economy of 5.00 after 2 overs, and Syed Rasel 5.50 after the allotted 4 overs in spectacular act of atonement for that earlier flight of “artistic” fancy that cost him 10 runs in the first over. Did I mention that he managed to scalp one in the process? What an amazing reversal of fortune! Hats off to Syed Rasel for pulling himself out of the hole in the manner in which he did. Perhaps it is time for the descendants of Sir Bertrand Russell to spell their surname the way they do it in semi-rural Jessore. Another perfect 5 out of 5 for Syed Rasel.

More on his Express teammate later.

In came Farhad Reza to bowl out his quota and not only did he match his previous excellence with the ball, he surpassed it. A wickedly valuable economy of 4.75 after 4 overs gives me no choice other than to eat the humble-pie I find myself swallowing at the moment, albeit with guarded optimism because the Kenyans do not have Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Samuels, Bravo, Sammy, Smith, Gibbs, Pollock, Boucher, DeVilliers and Kemp on their roster. Thank Allah almighty that Farhad doesn’t have to face their entire belligerence all at the same time … phew. That said, if he can repeat such performances with the ball against that better opposition, then Bangladesh would have found nothing less than high quality gold at the end of its T20 rainbow. A perfect 5 out of 5 for Farhad Reza.

With all the other bowlers doing well, and the possibility of pulling a rabbit out the hat looming over the horizon, captain Ashraful entered the stage to do what a captain must do under the circumstances. Extreme attention to detail was called for and Mohammad Ashraful was equal to the task and then some. The valuable wicket right off the bat and flaunting an unworldly economy of 2.5 after the first 2 overs, the familiar rush of blood which tends to make him play lower percentage lofted shots – rather than the higher percentage drives along the ground with the bat – possibly got the better of him in the third and the economy shot up to 5.33, a more than 100 percent decline in performance. Luckily for us, that economy was still nothing less than stellar in a universe where anything in the range of 6.0 to 7.49 can be considered good. The lovely total left behind by our talented batsmen such as the captain himself, thanks largely to the lopsided efforts of one Tamim Iqbal Khan, created a bold new standard of 5.82 and our own little dynamo was making amends. By the time he finished, our brave young captain could boast an outstanding economy of 4.75 per over. A perfect 5 out of 5 for the captain.

The SLA Shakib Al Hasan came next and showed improvement with that 6.52 economy, damn good under most circumstances in T20 cricket. Unfortunately, this was hardly a normal circumstance for Bangladesh, and those bowling figures proved to contain a few numbers too many. His last ball couldn’t pull out the rabbit we were so eager to see, but a gallant effort nonetheless. I give this young man, also from Khulna Division, a qualified 3 or “ above average” out of 5, whereas under “normal” circumstances, his performance would call for a 4.

Mashrafe Bin Murtaza, after that promising start, reverted back to his old self during the death overs, and invited La Gordita, the fat lady to clear her throat and belt out some of that Puccini he has been hearing so much about. His 7.75 runs per over well went beyond the required 5.82 or less, and despite those early heroics, the vice captain earned himself a 1 or “hmm” out of 5 in my book for his bowling. Under normal circumstances, those numbers would call for a 2 or “average”.

Our bowlers made a match of a seemingly lost cause, and conjured hope where there was none and took as close as it could go. 4.99 out of 5 to our bowlers for a legendary performance with the ball. Mashrafe’s indiscretions, as understandable as they may be, cost them the .01, and the Tigers an amazing victory. Thanks to them, this exciting, nay thrilling match in terms of entertainment value and dramatic flair, gets 5 out of 5 from this undertaker.


PS: Again Cricinfo didn’t the provide ball-by-ball text we were looking forward to, therefore again I find myself apologizing about the high margin of error inherent in this post mortem. Without having the slightest clue as to how the players performed and why some of the events transpired in the match, only half-@$$ed pseudo extrapolations had to do.

[Puck]

chin up, things can only get better!

[zainab]

Thanks Sohel bhaiya for a great post mortem. anyhow, our beloved Bangladesh cricket team is not yet dead. I am shocked and surprised to see that the batting collapsed so badly. Something drastically was wrong. Except for the recent test matches against SL, this is the poorest showing of batting.
Kenya did well to grab this opportunity and they really went for the kill. Our bowlers did a great job to restrict Kenya's scoring rate, and as you rightly said if BD had a few more runs on the board, would have won the match.
They have a few more days to reflect on this pathetic loss, and hopefully make a better showing against the Windians on Thursday. Something goes wrong if BD bats first, they are better at chasing runs. Now I am sure if WI wins the toss, they know BD's weakness and send them in to bat.
Our captain is very much out of form with the bat, he is beginning to look like Bashar, seems to aspire to be a bowler now, as he cannot perform with the bat.
Anyhow, let us just pray and hope for the best.

[Beamer]

Sohel...Have you thought about contributing as a cricket columnist in one of the local dailies?

About the game : These things happen. I would rather lose now than in the tournament proper. They have been playing better than my expectation in this form of the game. Maybe, complacency had set in, and this would be a minor wake up call. There are still a lot of room for improvement. Ash has not been among runs, but, he always had this crazy habit of playing below his standard against lower opposition or practice matches. He still is the key to our success. I hope to see him firing against WI and SA, when it matters. BTW..I like the AAA name...Its quite catchy..

[akabir77]

Again lost to kenya...

Dangg it why why why?

I wished they used all the rested player to try them out...

Anyway I guess on one hand Ash got enough low scores to score a big one (Eid may be coming) on the other hand it might continue next two game

[al Furqaan]

bad loss today...but it will hype up the team to not repeat something like this later...

finally a good bowling performance from the team, it was batting that lost us the match.

mashrafee still expensive, i think he was the only bowler to concede more than 6 an over from both sides. this is not his game, rajib i think would be more economical. oh well...

and btw, beamer bhai, I originally came up with the "AAA" nickname, perhaps i never mentioned it to anyone. sohel bhai owes me royalties

[al Furqaan]

that writing style is simply "golden"

[Murad]

We are so disappointed that we lost to kenya by scoring only 116. Look at NZ, they made only 115 while chasing 150 against WI. This version of cricket is really unpredictable. You don't know whats going to happen. An associate team can beat #1 team at anytime.

I'm more worried about the game against WI. They are doing good in bowling. Look at the scorecard of the match.

[Murad]

One thing I don't understand about Ashraful and the team management. Why didn't they give a chance to Ziaur Rahman & Junaid Siddique? We played 5 matches but they didn't get a single match to show their talent. And since it was a 14 per side affair, then why didn't Ashraful let Ziaur ball few overs? He wouldn't do any worse than Mashrafe for sure.

Practice matche means allow all the bolwers to bowl few overs so that they get warmed up. And also to see who's in form or something. Mashrafe should have been given rested. He's definitely hiding some injuries and that's most likely the case he's doing bad. They are taking him for his batting but I think Zia can bat well too.

I wrote that in another thread, posting here again.

Look at the WI side, they've rested some key players to give others a chance. But why didn't we? I guess i will never get an answer to this question.

[FagunerAgun]

Ash is not bouncing back. Other guys should have been given a chance or two. Jodi laigga jai.

[al Furqaan]

well, this could just be a learning tour for junaid and zia...i mean the aussies and other top sides dont rush young players in especially in important tours. and by young, they have players 27 years old who are rookies.

ideally, i would have liked to see junaid and zia in, but perhaps another tour.

[zahid]

Mora goru kokhono zinda hoy na!

[cricket_pagol]

Things happen in cricket... poor performance by our middle order and lower order for not completing 20 overs!!! I thought the bowlers bowled pretty well.

[DAC]

It appears that Sohel _NR bhai ended up spending more time on this write-up than our whole team at the crease today.. Good piece though.

As for the performace of our team, same old story ... batting diarrhea. This loss may be blessing in disguise. Better now than later. So far in most of these 20/20 matches, all other batsmen has been getting free rides on Nazimuddin’s back and avoided taking any heat for their bad performances since we were winning. Now they have to spend that extra hour for batting practice instead of shopping before the real deal begins. Let’s see what happens. But I am optimistic though, since most of the BD batsmen always seem to be playing 20/20 style cricket anyway.

[SS]

Great post SohelNR...front page material...This performance is unacceptable.

[nsd3]

This might be a blessing in disguise..... historically we start flying in the sky after a coule of good results. This might bring our legs back on the ground again and play a matured game against WI.

In other words 'Ostader mair shesh rate'. So don't panic ..... chances are not over yet; infact, the tourney didn't start yet.

Couldn't find any other positive way to stave off any negativity at this moment. Cheer up. Go Bangladesh Go!!!

[djuice]

Originally Posted by Puck
chin up, things can only get better!

somtimes they get worse too.
Given the performance against uganda and now kenya, it seems we are on a downhill road. its more than likeley what we might face a triple digit loss in one of the two mathces.

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
... and btw, beamer bhai, I originally came up with the "AAA" nickname, perhaps i never mentioned it to anyone. sohel bhai owes me royalties

Asaad my lion-hearted brother,

I'll give you what you want within reason, only if you resolve the matter with Imtiazk first. I read the description "AAA" in one of his recent posts from a match thread, and added the word "Battery" to it ... eyakhon eta eyakta dui-nombori brander na holie holo ...

[BD-Shardul]

SNR bhai is showing sheer class...........if our batsman had shown 10% of it.

[Roni_uk]

The result spoiled my day but com on guys this was a warm up, after seeing Abdur Razzak's injury in the previous match, I assume the players were under strict instruction to take it easy and not to put so much of physical or mental stress. Low scored, lost match teaches the weaknesses we will need to improve in the coming matches, just like the Kenya did.

By the way, even Aussies have lost yesterday.

[SMHasan]

After this loss I was not shocked or upset at all, even if it was a One day match I would not be upset. But when I saw the scorecard I was a bit surprised. I think the WC'07 taught us not to be upset by this team's performance. If we win then don't be so happy and again if we loose don't be so sad. This is my advise. Remember we lost to Ireland too.

As for this match- we simply don't know how to build an innings. We don't know what a good score is, let alone making a good score. We scored 145 against Uganda, and now this 116. If anyone can build an innings in one dayers then he can do well in T20 too. If we could have scored 150+ then we could have won easily. And 150 wasn't that difficult against the Kenyian attack.

Probably we are lacking in professionalism. Not only in this match but also in other matches we saw our batsmen were throwing their wickets away. This win may be a wake up call just before the main tournament. But the way we are loosing matches now a days it's a concern that when we will be professional or sensible enough to not to loose against these small teams.

And the 'Wake up Call' as mentioned by Beamer- well these kind of calls existed before but we did not wake up. I think like our politicians our cricketers are becoming senseless human being.

[Sauron]

Very nice post-mortem! Albeit a bit colorful (pun intended - Pollock reference) at times.

I am replacing Shakil Kashem's name in my Sig w/ yours.

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by Sauron
Very nice post-mortem! Albeit a bit colorful (pun intended - Pollock reference) at times.

I am replacing Shakil Kashem's name in my Sig w/ yours.

Touched ...

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Sohel NR
Asaad my lion-hearted brother,

I'll give you what you want within reason, only if you resolve the matter with Imtiazk first. I read the description "AAA" in one of his recent posts from a match thread, and added the word "Battery" to it ... eyakhon eta eyakta dui-nombori brander na holie holo ...

i want nothing short of [pauses whilst raising pinky finger to edge of mouth] 100 billion dollars [laughs maniacally].

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
i want nothing short of [pauses whilst raising pinky finger to edge of mouth] 100 billion dollars [laughs maniacally].

Monopoly dollars ... fax-copied ?