Blogs Bangladesh - Any Chance of Beguiling Others in Cricket World Cup 2007
March 9th, 2007 by writemanNeither among the minnows nor among the pretenders, Bangladesh has the ability to pull a surprise or two in the Cricket World Cup 2007. If the reigns are relaxed a bit Bangladesh can defeat the best teams - it has a knack of doing that. But thats all about it - it has only got the potential to spring a upset win or two like flashes in the pan. On a consistent level/series basis it fails to retain the tempo against better teams.
The recent win over New Zealand and past such victories over Australia and other countries doesn’t suggest Bangladesh can actually win many matches in row and take the Cricket World Cup 2007 home. Bangladesh, in all probablity, will lose to SriLanka and India in its group matches without being able to move to the Super 8 stage.
This however is not a message to the Indian or SriLankan teams to take things easy. Apart from the occasional wins against bigger teams, Bangladesh also has won series against smaller teams like Zimbawe. The keyword therefore is - complacency. Gurading aginst that is utterly important. If India walks in to play minus that it will succeed in beating Bangladesh convincingly and with regularity.
Bangladesh has some seasoned campaigners and a few talented players. Razaaq and Mortaza are two canny bowlers, and as evdinced recently can snare even the most versatile batsmen. The pace bowling attack is further strengthened by Tapas Baisya, Shadat Hossain, and Syed Rasel.
The batsmen to watch out for is Sahriar Nafees Ahmed. Making debut for his country at 19, he proved his credentials against Australia by scoring 138 in April 2006. Tipped as the future captain, he is a great batting potential and asset for the team at 21. He along with Gulla (Javed Omar) present a sound opening challenge that no bowler could just take lightly.
The team has allrounders like Aftab Ahmed who has a healthy batting average of nearly 30 and has scored 92 against Zimbawe. But he has not scored well against Australia.
Mohammed Ashraful has solid statistics to back his abilities. But the only thing that dogs him is consistency. If he has the distinction of being the youngest century maker in tests, scoring a ton against Australia contributing to the historic victory of his team, and a defiant 158 in defeat against India, he also has been dropped from the squad on innumerable occasions. Talent wrapped with inconsistency - let’s see how he does in this Cricket World Cup 2007.
Captain Habibul Basher has the cricketing brains to guide his team to victory against better teams. Additionally, there are untested talents like Tamim Iqbal who have proved to be hard hitters of the ball.
All said and done Bangladesh has not much of a chance of going to the Super 8 stage, leave alone winning the Cricket World Cup 2007 - a bunch of very young players notwithstanding.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Bangladesh definitely does not have the ability to win the world cup. But they definitely have the ability to upset the chances of winning the world cup of a couple of teams. They can be what Zimbabwe were in 1999 WC and Kenya were in 2003 WC. But I cannot rule out the possibility of they not making it to the super 8s. To make it to the super 8s, they might only need to beat india or sri lanka… and both can be beaten if its bangladesh’s day. They will definitely beat bermuda on any given day.
They will definitely not sustain the winning spree in the super 8s so there is no chance they will make it to the semi finals. But do not write them off from the super 8s as yet. They will have two shots at it.. playing against India and SL… and they have some really good players who can turn a match.
As said by writeman, if India and SL guard against complacency, then they should be able to beat bangladesh without much problems.
March 21st, 2007 at 1:13 am
I had mentioned earlier in a blog that India can win agaionst Bangladesh each and every time if it doesn’t get complacent. India did get complacent in it’s match against Bangladesh and has made it easier for them to go to the Super 8 stage.