A view from the Gully (29 May 1999)

29 May 1999

A view from the Gully

Tawfiq Aziz Khan

Bangladesh had no pretensions to upset the Australians rather they were keen to give a good account of themselves after their victory over the Scots and they did that.

But the Australians, with one win from the previous three matches, were in a hurry. Naturally they would put any weak team on any wicket to bat first, bundle them out cheaply and then knock off the required runs as quickly as possible to improve upon their net run rate to avoid being nosed out at the finish for a place in the Super Six. Still nothing can be predicted in a game of cricket.

Durham has a brand new ground for cricket and has been hosting the county team since 1995. The ground is one of the most beautiful that we have seen so far with the grass manicured in an exquisite manner and the surroundings magnificent.

When top players were scoring 'ducks' regularly what could go wrong if Shahrier was given another go instead of trying Khaled Masud as an opener. The story of the top was once again the monotonous repetition. Six wickets fell for 99 runs that includes a consecutive 'duck' by Akram Khan and poor innings from Faruq, Aminul and Naimur, who had played well in his previous two matches. Mehrab was the notable exception.

This was once again irresponsible batting from the experienced 'trio' of Bangladesh cricket. The tailenders once again came to the rescue and took the score to respectability. It is interesting to see the two late entrants, Tom Moody and Minhazul Abedin, fighting it out in the middle. Moody caused the most damage with the ball but Minhaz slowly proceeded to reach his consecutive fifty and finally remained unbeaten. He must acknowledge two very useful innings played by Enamul and Mashud. Bangladesh did extremely well by playing the full quota of fifty overs against an attack that was acknowledged as one of the best in the world but unfortunately finished around 30 or 40 runs short that would give them ample opportunity for a tougher fight.

What advice Adam Gilchrist's mother gave him over phone from Australia, we have no way to know, but this young man took out all his frustrations, for his failure in the last three innings, on Bangladesh.

After Mehrab dropped Mark Waugh from the 5th ball of the innings, the Aussies never looked back as Gilchrist led the charge ably assisted by Mark Waugh. Any attack would wilt against such batting and it was no use blaming the bowlers. In fact the ball that bowled Julian round his legs was a real beauty delivered by Enamul. Despite another hitting by Moody also the Australians fell short of their primary target of getting the required runs in 16 overs. This will give the Aussies some anxious moments.

Bangladesh will play their last match against Pakistan on 31 May at Northampton. Would we lose much if the reserve players are given a go? At least they will have a chance to prove their talent.

The Scots were demolished by the West Indians. Hamilton once again proved the class that he was. West Indies consolidated their position with a 10.1 over victory, if net run rate came into play.

Source :: The Daily Star