West Indies comprehensively beat Bangladesh in their Super 8 fixture yesterday. Even though the Windies have been eliminated from the tournament, the victory came as some kind of consolation to the fans who saw the team suffer four straight defeats in the Super 8 round recently.
West Indies batted first and got some solid
middle order contributions from the likes ofSamuels, Lara, Chanderpaul and the classy Sarwan although the openers let the team down once again. Both Gayle and Swayne Smith were dismissed for 1 and 5 respectively but then the innings was steadied by Marlon Samuels and Chanderpaul who made 31 and 50 respectively.
But the day belonged to Ramnaresh Sarwan who milked the Bangladeshi bowlers with ease and scored n invaluable 91 runs that included 5 fours and 2 sixes! The best part of his knock was the fact that it came if goodtime off just 90 deliveries at a strike rate of just over 100! He was also involved in some valuable partnerships with Lara and Samuels which helped the team reach the total of 230.
The Bangladesh batsmen have given a semblence of a pack of cards in the past two encounters. The slightest hint of a pressure and the side crumbles like cookies ! This was what happened in the previous encounter and the same was repeated yesterday once again!
The side never got the desired start it was looking for as the openers J Omar and T Iqbal were cheaply dismissed for 16 and 7 runs. The side witnessed a middle order collapse as three batsmen registered single digit scores! Md. ashraful, Aftab Ahmad and S Hasan all got out for a score of 2, 0, 6 which pulled the curtains on the game. The lower order contributed some runs but the game was virtually over by then.
It was a disappointing performance by Bangladesh once again where the batsmen looked to go for the kill without applying themselves to the situation. Flamboyance pays but not always is the lesson to be learnt for the Bangladeshi players who also need to understand that ‘One doesn’t step in the same river twice’!