Bangladesh Holding Steady

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Ireland’s captain William Porterfield dives to stop a stop by Bangladesh’s Raqibul Hasan (R) as wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien watches during their ICC Cricket World Cup group B match in Dhaka 2/25/11.   REUTERS/Andrew Biraj

Bangladesh is one of the home teams at the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup along with India and Sri Lanka. The Bangladeshis have had an uneven start to the tournament thus far. They took part in the opening match of the entire affair, taking on co-host India in a home match at Shere Bangla National Stadium. And Bangladesh made the decision to allow India to bat first, so that the Bangladeshi batsmen could take advantage of a slick dewy field when batting in the second innings. However, the Bangladeshi bowlers could not contain the Indian batsman. India’s Virender Sehwag struck for 175 runs. His teammate Virat Kohli drove home an even century. And by the time the damage was done, India had registered 370 runs on only four wickets in their first innings. The Bangla batsmen did their aggressive best to try to approach India’s lofty run total. Tamim Iqbal led the way with 70 runs on 86 balls, while team captain Shakib Al Hasan was responsible for 55 runs on 50 balls. Junaid Siddique also drove home 37 runs on 52 balls. But India’s lead proved to be insurmountable, and Bangladesh fell 87 runs short with a run total of 283.

Bangladesh next took on Ireland in a much lower-scoring affair. The Bangladeshis batted first, but put up a disappointing total of 205 runs. And when the Irish batsmen came out firing and registered 93 runs on only three wickets half way through the second innings, it was not looking promising for the dudes from Dhaka. This time, however, it would be the Bangla bowlers who came to the rescue. In particular, Shafiul Islam helped to slam the door shut on the Irish, with four wickets and only 21 runs in his eight bowled overs. The Bangla bowlers held fast and limited Ireland to a total of 178 runs, resulting in a nail-biting 27 run tournament-saving victory for Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh cricket team currently sits in fifth place out of seven teams in Group B of the World Cup, with India and England currently sitting atop the group. But no other team in the group has a higher win total than the one win total owned by Bangladesh. So, they certainly remain within striking distance of the 2011 World Cup title.

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