Bangladesh Gets The Party Re-Started

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ashraful-big.jpgI’d like to give massive props to my Bengali brothers for their epic smacking of South Africa yesterday. “When the Banglas bat well, they’re just briliant,” wrote the Guardian’s over-by-over commentator toward the end of Bangladesh’s innings, in which they scored 251 led by a fantastic 87 from 22-year-old Mohammad Ashraful, pictured here doing his thing. That set up South Africa with a sizeable target to chase in the afternoon, and instead they disgracefully folded, surrendering four wickets by the 20th over and two more in the 27th, and playing out the rest without spark nor art to a total of 184 all out.

The win not only confirms that Bangladesh are no longer by any standard “minnows” of the game — in case their win over India at the start of the cup and previous successes hadn’t already made that clear — but it also injects some new excitement into a competition that was first quieted by the early exit of two of the main contenders with the largest and most enthusiastic global support, India and Pakistan; then stunned and embarrassed by the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer (still unresolved officially, with no theory ruled out, including that of an accident); and then dulled by the tudding superiority of title holders Australia and the emergence right behind them of New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa, outclassing everyone else and hurtling toward the semi-finals.

No longer. Now with the eight-team round-robin Super Eights about halfway through, the remaining matches have regained excitement thanks to the Bangladesh victory, as South Africa no longer look inevitable semi-finalists, and three sides — England, Bangladesh, and host West Indies — are all very much back in the tournament. Which means that we are looking at several huge games coming up. Today, England go up against titanic Australia, a tall order but not out of the question; Tuesday, West Indies face South Africa with the winner taking a serious option on the semi-finals, and most of the world will be rooting for the hosts, who are due for a breakout performance; and Wednesday it’s England versus Bangladesh.

For today’s match England have won the toss and decided to bat first. The Guardian’s over-by-over is here. Just like their football live commentaries, it’s funny and worth checking out whether you understand the game or not. If you want to geek out with the technical details you’ll want to follow the Cricinfo OBO here, but in that case you probably know that already. If you’re at all curious about the game and eager to understand it with a little context, today is Sunday and a fine day to head to your local desi, Trini, Guyanese, Jamaican, English, Australian, or Kiwi pub, tavern, lounge, jerk shack or roti spot and check out the game on television. If you’re in New York chances are Eight Mile Creek is already packed with soon-to-be-inebriated Ozzies. But Brooklyn and Queens have numerous Caribbean and desi joints that are showing the matches. I’m sure that in any of the major US cities you can find a spot without too much sleuthing. Feel free to pass on tips in the comments!

66 thoughts on “Bangladesh Gets The Party Re-Started”

  1. aww yeah! That was a great match – after South Africa lost their 7th wicket and victory became more and more inevitable the smiles on the Bangladeshi players’ faces became bigger and bigger. They outplayed South Africa at every turn and Ashraful’s knock was phenomenal (and probably would have ended a lot sooner if SA had put in a fine leg earlier).

    It was definitely worth staying up until 3 am to watch 🙂

  5. The best part was watching bowler Nel from S. Africa tried to bully and intimidate the Bangladeshi batsmen with his “intensity”…all for naught.

  7. Ack! 164-3. Ok, that’s it from me, seeing as how I already jinxed India with my jingoism.

  8. I watched Bangladesh lose — resoundingly — to Australia a few days ago. Sounds like they’ve rebounded well.

    Also — Sri Lanka played quite well against West Indies, Jayasuria in particular.

  10. another desi sporting angle today is Vijay Singh is 5 strokes off the lead in the Masters. Golf on TV, cricket on the computer- aint life grand?

    Singh’s teeing off in less than an hour.

  13. as South Africa no longer look inevitable semi-finalists, and three sides — England, Bangladesh, and host West Indies — are all very much back in the tournament

    SA will make the semi-finals – they are already four in the points table and should be able to beat england and new zealand!

    aus,ban,lanka, and sa in the semi finals most likely

  14. Ack 5

    from the beeb:

    “the ball’s coming off Ravi’s blade like a baked potato.”

    38th over: Eng 190-5

  15. dudelog by far the best place to watch cricket is in hellskitchen-desijunction on 49th and 10th ave. there is no greater pleasure than watching cricket over their delicious laccha parantha & dal makhani with a glass of lassi to wash it all down. A place worthy of a sepia-mashup…

  16. Chess ? Chess is too boring man ! It’s fun when you first learn about it, learning all the openings, tactics and strategies..

    But then when you get really good, you end up playing the same openings which lead to the same tactics and same positions so all of your games end up being similar with just slight variations.. It is too boring !

  17. more beeb: “In the stands, a man dressed as Richard the Lionheart – complete with chain-mail and sword – is gently punching an inflatable kangaroo while holding a full pint with his other hand.”

    Classic.

  18. 45th over: Eng 223-5

    serviceable, but if this were football, Wayne Rooney would have steamrolled over Lucas Neil right about now with a hat trick. And Becks would have injured Kewell in the Battle of the Pretty Boys.

  20. Ravi Bopara is out by a Roo named Hussey. Hussey? The best Hussey I ever knew played Juliet. Ahhh, first love.

  22. 49.1 McGrath to Nixon, SIX, much more like it! Nixon just flicked it, getting under the ball and smacking it over long-on. Terrific blow Take that biznitch.

  24. Yes, Shodan, Viswanathan Anand is a chess god. Since the world chess federation (FIDE) began having rankings in the 1960s, only six players have held the top spot — Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov (current #2), Vladimir Kramnik (current world champ), and now Anand.

    And, unlike the other five, Anand is a perfect gentleman at and away from the board. I have yet to hear a single negative word uttered against him by anyone in chess. He truly makes India proud! (even though he lives in Europe, boo!)

  25. two Singhs at the Masters today and they are paired together. Vijay at +5 and Jeev Milkha at +13. this is probably going to be the highest winning score in the history of the masters.

    pietersen batted well but looked more interested in making his 100 than accelerating the total. might have been better if nixon and bopara had come in earlier. bangladesh-sa match was superb, but looks like only sri lanka and nz have what it takes to possibly dethrone the aussies.

  26. Damn! In the timespan between this comment and the above post, Siddhartha’s learned a LOT about cricket! Well done, man, nice overview.

    And I think I said this during the futbol World Cup, the last time Siddhartha (with Mr Kobayashi) was enclave hopping to watch matches: I’m so jealous of New Yorkers and their endless supply of… everything. How do you people get any work done?

  27. Mahmood getting eaten by Ponting here. If only they were as likeable as 7os windies or Brazil in futbol. rant:: fuck australia :: end rant.

  28. England has to be extremely embarassed over the failure to build on their great start–the story during all their defeats.

    as much as i can’t decide whether i dislike OZ more than england, my fondest memory is of running around Melbourne after the 2003 rugy world cup and yelling, “hail to the queen!”

    thusly i can’t decide whether i should gloat in england’s crushing defeat as the gloating would be somewhat congratulatory of an aussie win by default. it’s quite the quandary.

  31. nice one, sid! thanks for the pointer to the guardian commentary. note that the coach Dav Whatmore took Lanka to the Cup final (and victory) in 96..wonder how many upsets the banglas can pull?

  33. wretched start for the Bangla boyz: Bangladesh 47-4 (13 overs) v England

    rant:: fuck australia :: end rant

    Here, here risible.

    Go Windies!

    Here, here risible.

    my fondest memory is of running around Melbourne after the 2003 rugy world cup and yelling, “hail to the queen!”

    There’s nothing I love more than a good sporting instigator. Good on you muralimannered. I live right next door to a lovely Greek Orthodox Church which, on Memorial Day weekend, hosts a vibrant Grecian Festival. All are invited and I go every year and I love it. But the devil in me would love to go to the festival wearing a Turkish football shirt, red shin pads and socks, and run through the festival waving a Turkish flag. I mean, I hate the Turkish team (very dirty players), but at my core, I’m a little schoolboy who longs to do little schoolboy things. I shan’t but oh if I could…

    This dream of mine was particularly strong when Greece won Euro 2004.

  37. Anyone saw Man U thrashing Roma? 7-1 was riduculous.

    Holy mackarel! That was the most Brazilian performance I have ever seen from a club. It was one-touch football at its finest.

  40. English Desis have done well. 3 wickets each for Mahmood and Panesar. Vaughn is batting like Sachin. Both used to be such classy players.

  43. Mohammad Rafique just bowled two consecutive maiden overs to Paul Collingwood. Get him in the next one! 85/4 after 26.

  47. cricinfo commentary:

    27.2 Mohammad Rafique to Flintoff, FOUR, winds up and unwinds a four through midwicket, although he was aiming that through mid-on. Not a convincing shot, and I’m not always convinced when he faces the spinners 27.5 Mohammad Rafique to Flintoff, FOUR, much better shot, rocking back to give himself room to time that through the covers – very nice indeed. I’m always convinced when he faces the spinners

    Collingwood has scored 1 run in the last 18 balls he’s faced

  48. A little off-topic, but not really, since some got started on this already. Does anyone know how i can watch the champions league games live.I have FOX soccer channel from cable, which is good enough for the EPL, but then i also have a subscription with ITVN for some(unfortunately not all…) games in the champions league. I got to watch Chelsea move on, but what i really wanted to see was the Man Utd Game. Did anyone watch that game live?if yes, how? Gracias senores. Back to Cricket…

  49. more cricinfo:

    29.1 Mohammad Rafique to Flintoff, SIX, down the track, watches it on to his bat and all the way and that’s gone over long-on and it’s long gone into the second tier, the cheap seats, where they clap. Prince Harry and co elsewhere are no doubt rattling their jewellery

    It looked promising for a while, but Bangladesh need some quick wickets here – another almost-hattrick wouldn’t hurt…