World Test Championship 2021-23 : Bangladesh V/s New Zealand [ 2 test ]

Had to digest this game for a bit. I'm ready with my thoughts and will try to keep from rambling but we'll see how that goes:

Bangladesh weren't perfect, but they were nearly perfect. That being said, I think this was the absolute best we (any team really) could have played. Whatever "playing to the best of their potential" is, we played at that level in this Test. Many teams will probably never reach their full potential, and the great teams probably only do it once or twice. But we did it. I honestly didn't think our boys had it in them to ever play to the best of their ability. Sure one or two guys can turn out their best peformance at the same time, but to get almost everyone on the team (barring Mushfiq) to do it in the same Test? No never thought it would happen. Perhaps I merely dreamt it...

The batters all showed purpose. How many times on this forum have I lamented that we "threw wickets away"? Probably every single time we've played a Test. But this game, almost no one threw their wickets away. Even Mushfiq who was dismissed cheaply was simply beaten by a very good delivery. How many times have argued the bowlers aren't getting support from their captain or that we "bowled better with the new ball" only to bowl trash after that? None of those applied this time. The batters showed maturity, especially youngsters like Joy, Shanto, and Miraz. Mominul and Liton stepped up with their experience. The bowlers stuck to their plan, seldom deviated from it, and bowled with the patience of monks. The fielders had their lapses, but made up for it with exemplary takes.

Team Batting Grade: A

Team Bowling Grade: A

Team Fielding Grade: B

Overall Grade: A+

Shadman Islam - Saw off the new ball in the first innings and fell in unfortunate fashion. Did not play that well in the 2nd innings but a target of 40 he may be forgiven.

Mahmudul Hasan Joy - Solid knock. A bit nervy at times, and not perfect. But its just his 2nd Test and he's not actually an opener. Very unlucky for him to miss the remainder of the series due to a hand injury picked up during fielding drills before the fifth day of the Mout Maunganui Test.

Nazmul Hossain Shanto - Decent knocks, but should have gone bigger. His career average is just above 30, but thats with him averaging under 18 at home. I really feel he can be one of the best batsmen in the world if he can just stop edging behind in the first 20 deliveries he faces. He has both finesse and the ability to score all around the ground as well as power especially against spinners. Nearly a complete batsman.

Mominul Haque - As a captain he was near perfect (use of DRS was mediocre, but he's still a fairly new captain). As a batter he's getting better and finally begininng to score runs overseas. I really feel his development was hampered in the 4 years we had Hathurasinghe as a coach. Regardless, he should be entering his prime now and just needs to keep things simple.

Mushfiqur Rahim - Scored the winning runs as he often does in big match wins for Bangladesh (2007 World Cup vs India), but had that rare game where he was almost irrelevant, having given up the WK gloves some time ago. Look for him to score in Christchurch.

Liton Das - Really looks like he's turned a corner with big scores against Pakistan and now again vs NZ. Still prone to throwing it away, but his level of production is a really good sign for us going forward.

Yasir Ali - Solid little "cameo" knock in the first innings. Technically solid, but it remains to be seen if he maintain his fitness over long periods at the top level.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz - Superb batting display, and excellent bowling. Took some wickets and even when he wasn't he was bowling tighly to allow the pacers freedom to attack from the other end.

Taskin Ahmed - Flew under the radar a bit, bowled slower than usual (low to mid 130s), but his accuracy was fantastic and took the late wickets to ensure NZ wouldn't offer any real resistance on day 5.

Shoriful Islam - Only his second match, and he led the bowlers with 3 wickets in the first innings. Bowled with sensational control and a touch of movement. Like Taskin also bowled much slower than his usual pace, hovering in the mid 120s throughout the match.

Ebadat Hossain - I'd long advocated for him, and even I wasn't sure if it was only because he's from my hometown. But he came through in a massive way. His six for 46 not only won Bangladesh their greatest every victory, but also goes down as the most iconic spell every bowled by a Bangladeshi paceman. Bowled long overs, always hovering at around 140 clicks, attacked the stumps ball after ball, induced edges through vacant slips, and then finally resorted to mopping the Kiwis up via clean bowleds and hitting the pads. Calling his performance superb would be a disservice to his bowling...it was quite simply some of the best bowling you will see from anyone. Even I didn't think he could bowl that well.

Lastly, but not least. Huge shout out to the support staff. Russell Domingo is doing something right because almost all the batters are averaging more under his tutelage than they did before. Otis Gibson has obviously had tremendous impact in the performance of the seamers, and Rangana Herath must have played some role in Miraz being the first Bangladeshi spinner to bowl with relevance in these conditions.

Khaled Mahmud Sujon has also been touted to have had an effect on the mental side of things for the boys. He was instrumental in the U-19 side winning the world cup a couple years ago, and looks like he's worked the same magic on the senior team. He was a mediocre player (once had a Test bowling average of 300+), but it seems he does an excellent job as a team manager.

Wow that is a green pitch.

What we've seen for the past several years though is that no matter how green the wickets are, NZ pitches are usually pretty batting friendly. Of course good bowling will be rewarded a la Ebadat's 7 wicket match haul.

Looking forward to this game!

Rajkumar Sharma wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:07 pm

No.The wicket in which de Grandhomme took 5 wicket haul against Pakistan was green and was tough for batters. BD should take this opportunity and include Abu Jayed as 4th pacer as Mahedy can bat. Shanto & Joy should open

I am not in favor of shifting the entire batting order up just because one player is injured. Shanto is a future Babar Azam IMO he shouldn't be made to open. Either draft in one of the reserves to open, or have Liton open (has opened in domestic FC many times), or have Miraz open.

Nzl in some anger today, the wicket looks quite green, I wonder why Bangladesh have been so ineffective with the ball.

BAN will have to bat really well to save this now.

By the way this is the first series to be broadcast on Amazon prime in India.

The bowling was a lot better than the figures suggest. I think a total of at least 12 genuine edges went through the slips and gully region. Thats about 50 runs right there. Plust 8 overthrows :shock: off Ebadat's bowling.

All in all a frustrating day. Ebadat had Latham out lbw twice in his first over but both times were overturned by DRS. Just one of those days. Law of averages too...almost everything went right the previous 5 days so we were bound to have a day or two where everything goes wrong.

The pitch is actually deceptively flat. Already starting to turn brown. Hopefully, we can pick up a few wickets and then bat ourselves to safety.

cricket_22001 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 3:03 am

I'm not watching the game but relying on cricinfo. The posts spoke badly about Bangladesh's fielding & at the end of day 1 said Latham "rode his luck". If we recall Ebadot's last day spell, a catch was dropped then he bowled Taylor & Nicholls. No relying on fielders.

Mohammad Naim must be the worst test selection in Bangladesh's history (that's saying something). Good luck on him he has a test cap & for the rest of his life can access prestigious places.

And sure he was part of the T20 campaign, so part of a national setup, but he hasn't played first class cricket since February 2020.

There's a reason why Mominul is not in the t20 setup. He doesn't meet the national criteria. This should be the reason Naim should not be part of the test setup. But he is young. Hope he recovers & has a prosperous career. Crikey, it may happen in their 2nd innings.

But any one of Rajkumar's selections would have made more sense. Struth that hurt typing THAT sentence.

Yeah Naim's selection may be the worst in our history ever. First class average of 16 and hasn't played a match in years. But one man won't make or break a match very often.

We are 27-5 after NZ piled on 500+ declared. I really thought it was a flat pitch...but the BD quicks just couldn't swing the ball, and unlike Tauranga, there is no reverse here. We didn't really swing the ball all that much in the last game either...just reversed it a lot which the NZ bowlers couldn't do.

1-1 will be great result for us either way, but losing by an innings will really leave a sour taste in one's mouth.

Hoping Nurul, Yasir, and Mehidy can score some runs here and take us to at least 200.

Complete s**t show from Bangladesh, this is where they allow their critics to get all over them.

Absolutely fine in losing and drawing the series 1-1 as long as you've put up a good fight in the 2nd test, but this performance has been abysmal so far.

sam_ahm wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 5:18 am

Complete s**t show from Bangladesh, this is where they allow their critics to get all over them.

Absolutely fine in losing and drawing the series 1-1 as long as you've put up a good fight in the 2nd test, but this performance has been abysmal so far.

On par with most other Asian nations though. In fact, even India haven't been competitive in NZ in recent times.

Its always going to be hard with Tamim, Mushy, Shakib all out.