England too good for Bangla

NAIROBI, OCTOBER 5: It was bright and sunny, the wicket was true and the ball was coming nicely onto the bat. And, with short boundaries, ...

NAIROBI, OCTOBER 5: It was bright and sunny, the wicket was true and the ball was coming nicely onto the bat. And, with short boundaries, the batsmen could have been in the paradise. If there was any Alladin, and the whole of Bangladesh wished there was one, they would have wanted him to be a bowler on Thursday. After such tremendous batting in the morning, here were the minnows facing utter humiliation. English skipper Nasser Hussain and the I-know-it-all Alec Stewart both could have hit centuries, and much more if they could bat on and on. The only limiting factor was the total (232-8) Bangladesh had made so bravely in the morning.

Hussain, woefully out of form in the English summer, probably became over complacent and missed out on what would have been his maiden one-day hundred but Stewart didn’t give it up, batting as it were only yesterday that he had been peeling off that amazing streak of centuries against Zimbabwe and West Indies. An eight-wicket defeat had bitter lessons for the Bangladeshis, who would soon become the 10th Test playing nation when they face India at Dhaka from October 10 to 14.

They don’t have bowlers to bowl at this level and as long as they don’t find them, they would struggle to pull off upsets like the one they did against Pakistan in last year’s World Cup.

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Their batsmen savoured the day for long though. They had been kept on a tight leash by the English bowlers till about the 30th over and then the floodgates opened. Balls were disappearing into the stands and beyond and the Bangladeshi flags were out soon. Opener Javed Omar braved the hand injury he had sustained early in the innings and when he did return, he celebrated with a flurry of fours and a huge six. His unbeaten 63 was the knock of the day but it won’t have been possible but for the way Naimur Rahman (46) and the late-order players Khalid Masud and Hasibul Hossain worked around.

The late flourish earned Bangladesh many friends as also giving them more than a decent total to defend. Only, if they had some bowlers they could have testedthe Englishmen.

The new sensation Marcus Trescothick hit three powerful boundaries before seamer Hasibul Hossain had him snicking behind. Suddenly, the Bangladeshis thought international cricket was rather easy. They only claimed one more wicket as Stewart and Hussain partied at their expense. Once Hussain got his eye in, he was hitting only fours and sixes while for Stewart it was like another day at the office, picking gaps and hitting at will.

So, the tournament has moved on along expected lines. Kenya, Bangladesh and the West Indies are rightly out with the competition hotting up now. It’s Russian Roulette now; you blink and your are out.