India completed yet another professional match in their Professional Match winning streak by completely routing Bangladesh in the first match of the super 4s in the ongoing Asia Cup 2008 in Karachi, Pakistan.
When Bangladesh began well, about 60/1 in 10 overs (much better than Pakistan), MSD decided to let them score as many as they could, as Raina was there to get it (no Sehwag in this match). The Bangladeshis swelled with pride after getting 283 in their alloted overs, with Ian Chappel even going on to say strange things (it runs in the family), knowing little that the Indians …read more

Why am I even reporting this! Of course India won. I would like to re-brand the term – “meek surrender” to “Bangladesh Cricket Team”. They seem to have mastered the art of starting to believe that they can win the match and then losing it halfway into the match.
Positives for India : Gautam Gambhir was awesome
Negatives for India : Few people got a bat, bowling could have been better, thank god they have the hapless Pakistan in the final
Positives for Bangladesh : Scored 222
Negatives for Bangladesh : Read intro para
Phew, lets hope the final is not one sided like the …read more

As if this post was necessary. As if I haven’t told all of you that Bangladesh should be given some time before they are sent to top flight cricket. But no one would listen. Yet another loss. And that too against the biggest give-hope-to minnows team in the world – Pakistan.
I wanted to write that Bangladesh bowled well; but no : most of the wickets were due to careless batting.
I wanted to write that Salman Butt played well for his 70 in this curtailed (40 Over) match; but no, the bowling wasn’t that good.
The situation was summed up really …read more

Preview:
Teams:
Bangladesh: Mohammad Ashraful(c), Mashrafe Mortaza(vc), Abdur Razzak, Alok Kapali, Dolar Mahmud, Farhad Reza, Mahmudullah, Mehrab Hossain jnr, Mushfiqur Rahim(wk), Nazimuddin, Raqibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal
Pakistan: Shoaib Malik(c), Misbah-ul-Haq(vc), Bazid Khan, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Anjum, Kamran Akmal(wk), Mohammad Yousuf, Nasir Jamshed, Naumanullah, Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Younis Khan
India : MS Dhoni(c, wk), Yuvraj Singh(vc), Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Manpreet Gony, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Robin Uthappa
Fixtures:
Sun 8 June(D/N)15:00 local, 09:00 GMT : Bangladesh vs Pakistan : …read more

The tri series features Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Yusuf Pathan and Pragyan Ojha are in the team from the IPL quota. Most of the players should get a look in against Bangladesh at least. Bangladesh should be happy too. They are playing two of the most generous teams in world cricket, and that too on home turf; not that it matters.
Team:Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha.

Now this one is like throwing the cat among the pigeons. Everybody has a view. I am one of everybody. So, I have a view. If you are a Bangladeshi and you are reading this, do not worry mate. I am just surprised. With players of the quality of Mohd. Ashraful and Abdur Razzak doing the rounds, things can only get better. But that was about an year ago. Or maybe two. I am not sure but what I am sure is that there is no drastic improvement in the win percentage. Talking about it to my friends (great cricket …read more

Oooh-ee. England continued their rampant meander through this World Cup by accidentally beating Bangladesh in their latest Super 8 clash. England appeared to have taken heed of the must-win status, when the bowlers did a good job in bowling the ‘deshi’s out for 143. Sajid Mahmood generated some good pace and did a good job in roughing up the inexperienced-against-bouncy-bowling batsmen, and at the other end, Andersen and Flintoff backed him up. Monty also finally looked in form, taking a useful 3fer towards the end of the innings. It wasn’t a totally convincing performance – they were 70 odd for …read more

I’m not so sure that any of the people involved with the Bangladeshi squad read this site, but either way, Bangladesh have done a spectacular job in making me look very silly. No sooner had I said that Bangladesh were running out of steam and they’ve pulled their socks up and caused yet another “upset” in beating world number 1 South Africa. I’m not sure why “it” is an upset, since, as a Bangladeshi, you’re presumably not at all upset. Maybe if you’re South African. I’m English, and I’m definitely not upset. Except maybe at the state of the headlines …read more

England did enough to get in to the Super 8 stage of the World Cup by beating Kenya in the final match of Group C. In a match delayed by heavy rain and subsequently limited to 43 overs, Kenya won the toss and bravely elected to bat first. They lasted until the final over, but their low run rate was only enough to set a target of 178. Kenyas men batted valiantly, but on a wicket suited to bowlers, the regular loss of wickets never enabled Kenya to build any significant partnerships. England’s bowlers were led by Jimmy Anderson, although …read more

There were no prisoners yesterday, as the first weekend of the cricket World Cup 2007 claimed two high profile victims. First up was Pakistan versus Ireland, and on St. Patrick’s day of all days. And although the Irish rugby team narrowly missed out on the Six Nations crown, the Irish cricket team were on top form to embarass one of the teams tipped to win the World Cup. As was the norm for these “giants vs minnows” matches, the giants were batting first, but were humbled by some superb bowling and were bowled out cheaply for just 132. The innings …read more