win against England - Dhaka Mirror

Sakib all praise for Shafiul

Admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:55:27 +0000

Bangladesh skipper Sakib al Hasan said he had lost the hopes of winning the game against England on Friday when they were eight wickets down with 57 runs still needed.
‘I thought we lost the game,’ Sakib said after the crucial two-wicket win. ‘But when Riyad [Mahmudullah] hit the winning runs, suddenly I realised we won it. Still I would say it took some time for me realise we won the game,’ he said.
Bangladesh, chasing a modest total of 225 runs, were down and out with 169-8 before Mahmudullah and Shafiul added 58 runs in a stunning ninth wicket stand to win the game.
Shafiul, one of the major architects in Bangladesh’s 27-run win over Ireland in the previous game, blasted 24 runs to swing the momentum to Bangladesh’s way.
Shafiul struck Graeme Swann for the only six of the game to take 16 from his final over, which brought Bangladesh back in the contest. He slaughtered the pace bowlers which was crucial to the win.
‘I did expect Shafiul to hit boundaries against spinners but did not expect him to strike the pace bowler as he did. He proved me wrong and did a fantastic job for the team,’ said Sakib.
‘When they put on 225 runs on the board, we thought we had a very good chance to win the game because we knew for the last few days there was dew and we knew it will be hard for them to bowl on this wicket,’ Sakib added.
‘When Imrul and I were batting, I thought we are going pretty well. But there were some silly mistakes
like two run outs that could have cost us the game. Luckily it didn’t,’ said the all-rounder.
Sakib hailed the win, one of the greatest for Bangladesh, considering the circumstances as it kept their quarter-final hopes alive. Bangladesh were facing huge criticism for their 58 all out in the previous game against West Indies.
‘Obviously it’s not a normal win. If you look at the situation and the whole scenario of Bangladesh, it is a a great victory for us and for the whole nation, I think,’ said Sakib.

Courtesy of New Age

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Bowlers do their part for Tigers

Admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:54:04 +0000

Bowlers gave Bangladesh a shot in the arm in their battle for World Cup survival when they restricted England to a modest 225 in a crucial Group B match in Chittagong on Friday.
Coming from a horror show against West Indies when they were all out for their lowest ever one-day total of 58, Bangladesh needed a good start to lift their morale and the bowlers gave them exactly the same.
Shafiul Islam was a bit expensive at the start, but his partner Rubel Hossain bowled superbly from the other end, conceding only five runs in his first three overs, which put England under some kind of pressure.
Spinners reaped the reward with Razzak striking in his very first ball to dismiss Matt Prior, who was picked for opening the innings with Andrew Strauss after Kevin Pietersen had returned home.
Wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim completed an intelligent stumping to send Prior back to the dressing room after his England counterpart had made only 15 runs.
Bangladesh were over the moon when Naeem Islam had Strauss for 18 with Junaed Siddique holding a sharp catch at first slip to get rid of the England captain, who has a Bradman-like average of 98.66 against them before this game.
When Mahmudullah took the wicket of Ian Bell, another perennial nemesis of Bangladesh, caught by Naeem at mid-wicket for five, England were left struggling at 53-3.
With the run-rate dropping to under four after 20 overs, England needed someone to launch a counter-attack and Morgan did the same helping them avoid a further embarrassment.
After he was flown in from England as replacement for Pietersen, Morgan showed no signs of jet leg and added 109 runs for the wicket with Jonathan Trott to steady the innings.
Irishman Morgan, who joined Kepler Wessels, Anderson Cummins and Ed Joyce to become only the fourth cricketer to play a World Cup for two different countries, struck eight sweetly-timed boundaries to give England some momentum.
His previous World Cup with Ireland yielded him only 91 runs in nine matches, but grabbed his first chance when playing for England to hit a fifty, 63 off 72 balls, that bailed them out of a serious danger.
After Naeem ended his stubborn partnership with Trott, Bangladesh were straight back into game as England lost their last seven wickets for 63 runs.
Trott was happy to play an anchor role allowing Morgan to play his shots and was rewarded with 67 off 99 balls, his fourth half-century in five World Cup matches, before he holed out a catch to Junaed off Sakib at long-off.
Sakib also had Graeme Swann caught and bowled for 14 to finish with 2-49 while Razzak made Ravi Bopara a catch of Naeem to end his 10 overs for 2-32.
After a wicket apiece by Shafiul and Rubel Hossain, Mahmudulla brought the end to England innings, running the last man Paul Collingwood out with a direct throw from long-on.
England’s 225 is their lowest total against Bangladesh batting first in their 15 meetings, which gave the batsmen a great chance to make amends for their disastrous performance against the West Indies.

Courtesy of New Age

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Strauss blames dew for defeat

Admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:52:53 +0000

England captain Andrew Strauss blamed early evening dew for their Friday’s shock two-wicket defeat against Bangladesh which left their World Cup campaign in tatters.
‘There was a 20-over period where it was very, very bad,’ Strauss said at the post-match press conference.
‘Graeme Swann couldn’t grip the ball at all. I think there’s something not quite right if a spinner can’t grip the ball in this part of the world, where spin plays such an important role,’ he said.
‘Graeme was obviously very frustrated, he felt he had a big role to play in the game, and for a period there we had to take him off until later on when he could grip it,’ said Strauss.
Swann conceded 42 runs in 10 overs for his two wickets as Bangladesh cruised to 227-8 to win the game in a massive turn around of their fortune after West Indies had bowled them out for 58 runs in the previous game.
The co-hosts looked to be probably heading out of the competition when they slumped to 169-8 chasing 226 to win on an unpredictable wicket with the ball taking reverse-swing.
But Shafiul decided to attack Swann and took 16 runs off his final over which included the only six of the game, as the momentum swung to Bangladesh’s way.
‘We thought we were in a great position to win it. Ajmal (Shahzad) was “reversing” it a little bit, and bowled a really good spell there.
‘(But) the dew makes reverse-swing a lot harder as well,’ said Strauss, who also partly blamed the early batting collapse for the defeat.
Bangladesh captain Sakib al Hasan won the toss and gambled with ball which paid off as the visitors were reeling at 53-3 in the 17th over, to the delight of the roaring partisan fans.
Jonathan Trott (67 off 99 balls) and Eoin Morgan (63 off 72 balls) smashed contrasting half-centuries to rescue England from a dreadful start but at the end of the day their efforts were not enough.
‘I think losing three wickets early with the bat certainly didn’t help us,’ said Strauss.
‘It was a pretty slow, low, stodgy wicket – and we needed wickets in hand to get up to 240 or 250, which would have been a very good score.
‘Eoin Morgan played exceptionally well, and obviously Jonathan Trott stuck in there.
‘We felt it was a par score that we could defend it, and we got ourselves in a great position to do that.
‘But in the end we weren’t able to take those last two wickets, which is very disappointing for us,’ he said.

Courtesy of New Age

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