Can England `sweep’ away Bangladesh’s challenge?
Bridgetown: Bangladesh’s defeat of South Africa — don’t call it an upset, said captain Habibul Bashar — has eddied the Super Eight waters.
It seemed that Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and South Africa would rise and trickle into the World Cup’s next pond; instead, South Africa, the West Indies and England are battling the currents to stay afloat.
England needs to win its three remaining matches, starting Wednesday against Bangladesh here at the Kensington Oval. And win well to harbour hopes.
Smirks all round
“In some ways it’s easier knowing exactly what you need to do,” said Michael Vaughan, the England captain.
“We are very, very close to being a real good one-day team. I know we’ve lost two games but we’ve put two good teams under a lot of pressure.”
That the comment was received with smirks all round says all that’s needed about England in one-day cricket.
One English captain, David Gower, was treated at the Antigua Recreation Ground to strains of "Captain, the ship is sinking… "; another, Vaughan, will recognise the song, and permit himself — if he’s the sort — a mirthless laugh.
Vaughan’s batting credentials in one-day cricket have been questioned to a degree he’s been forced to accede, “If I knew (what was wrong), I’d be scoring plenty of runs. It’s as frustrating for me as it is for everyone watching. It’s just not happening.”
Indeed, such has been his paucity this World Cup, the normally phlegmatic Duncan Fletcher, coach and Vaughan’s confidant, said, “He’s just lost a bit of confidence and put pressure on himself, but his place is safe in the side. Maybe the captaincy is getting to him.”
Vaughan’s troubles are symptoms of a tentativeness that has plagued England’s play. For all the talk of hundreds, when Kevin Pietersen did manage one, England couldn’t capitalise.
This must be remedied immediately, for Bangladesh showed against South Africa that it can masterfully exploit signs of weakness.
The key to defeating Bangladesh is to hurt it early, and dictate from a position of strength. The three left-arm spinners — Abdur Razzak, Mohamad Rafique, and Saqibul Hasan — shouldn’t be allowed to settle into their middle-stump lines.
One would suspect off-stump guards and sweep strokes — England’s time-honoured solutions to this particular problem — are currently being dusted out of the closet: perhaps promoting the reverse-sweeping Paul Nixon will do.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but to say the three left-arm spinners are subtly different bowlers — Bashar’s “One thing similar in them is that they are three left-arm spinners. But they are three different kinds of bowlers, and they always bowl in different kind of positions,” for instance — is to say nothing at all. Sure, each’s trajectory, angle, and pace is different from the other; heck, the three even impart spin differently, but it’s their sameness that has troubled batsmen too thick to tell them apart. Fletcher has called for patience from his batsmen. “Sometimes you go in there and you can find the gaps, but other times you have to work out which angles you can hit and which angles you can’t hit,” he said. “Don’t panic. It’s important slowly to build momentum.”
It’s an admirable directive. But, Bangladesh’s left-arm spinners are experts of the breathless two-minute over — a little too much patience and England will find itself 10 overs behind the game.
It’s unclear how the Kensington Oval track will play; at any rate it’s unlikely to aid the slow bowlers to the extent the one in Guyana did — “I’m not sure they will suit us,” said coach Dav Whatmore.
But, Bangladesh mustn’t obsess over the conditions. The win against South Africa came at a crucial time. There were murmurs that the side had turned complacent, that it was satisfied having made the Super Eight.
The weekly cruel joke doing the press rounds was that Bangladesh had arrived in world cricket because Bashar’s effigy was being burnt. The win has shut a few mouths.
Bangladesh needs look no further than the Kensington Oval for inspiration.
Even in evening’s unflattering light, it’s clear the stadium, imposing yet intimate, belongs with royalty.
Consider the men the stands, the ends, and the pavilion are named after - Greenidge, Haynes, Worrell, Walcott, Weekes, Sobers, Hall, Griffith, Marshall, Garner - and the current Australian side doesn’t look indomitable after all.
**The teams (from): England:** Michael Vaughan (capt.), Ed Joyce, Ian Bell, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Nixon (wk), Ravinder Bopara, Jamie Dalrymple, Monty Panesar, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Liam Plunkett, and Sajid Mahmood.
**Bangladesh:** Habibul Bashar (capt.), Javed Omar, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Saqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shahadat Hossain, Tapash Baisya, Syed Rasel, Rajin Saleh, and Shariar Nafees.
