Saturday, March 12, 2011

The Tigers Roar —The Bangaldeshi’s keep their hopes alive in the 2011 World Cup

What happens when two unpredictable teams walk out in the middle? Well, we get an exciting match of England vs Bangladesh going!

March 11 - England vs Bangladesh

The home team, Bangladesh walked out, with pressure-jaded shoulders carrying the burden of a horrific loss against WI, to prove their fans that they have it in them. England on the other hand has seen it all – drama, excitement, thrill - what next now? was the only question playing on everyone’s mind.

The minnows of the clash, Bangladesh started out pretty well clipping the key wickets of Strauss and Prior quite early. Trott and Morgan managed to hold their ends and built a good partnership. But the early setbacks led these two to tread very carefully and were ably restricted by the Bangladeshi spin trio of Shakib, Razzak and Naeem who bowled beautifully and managed to take 7 wickets amongst them. After this partnership fell apart, it didn’t take for Bangladesh to wrap the opposition up and had a challenge of chasing 225 runs ahead of them.

225 runs - Was it a safe total to defend? Couldn’t be said as it was England who was defending it!

In reply, Bangladesh started out pretty well losing out their prolific batsman Tamim Iqbal who made a good 52 run stand along with Kayes. Kayes carried on the inflow of runs making an important 60 runs before getting run out by Shahzad. The middle order couldn’t quite build up on the start except Shakib who provided some consolidation there with his contribution of 32.

Bangladeshi fans lost all hopes after the dismissal of their captain but little did they know that the real battle was about to begin… It all began with Mahmuddulah hitting a boundary off Swann in the 42nd over followed up by a six and a four by Shafiul. They bought a dead match to life from thereon - ticking the scoreboard, complementing each other well and above all playing with a steady head! A wicket at this point could have helped England’s cause but the 46th over from a very lost Anderson failing to find his length further slipped the game out of England’s hand to the dangerous point of no return.

In the end, Mahmuddulah hit a four, won the game for their team in style and the stadium burst in thunderous roars of joy and ecstacy! 

The tigers had let out a ROAR – loud enough for the world to sit up and take notice!

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