The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Bangladesh tail wags

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Friday, Jun 17, 2005

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Bangladesh tail wags

Ted Corbett

Lewis and Harmison too good for visitors

LONDON: For all their barometers, their maps and their little charts, the forecasters got it wrong again on Thursday so that the best laid plans of odds-on England went astray.

It took Bangladesh wickets regularly at the Oval in the first of nine one-day NatWest tournament internationals leading to the final — inevitably against Australia which plays its opening fixture against Bangladesh in Cardiff on Friday — but rain came in place of the anticipated muggy heat and they never developed a rhythm much less an unstoppable winning impetus.

The damage was done by Jon Lewis, tall, gangling and in his off duty moments the owner of a pair of spectacles that make him look studious and Steve Harmison, back at his fiery best.

In truth Lewis is a typical modern quick bowler and today his nippy outswing was too much for Javed Omar, caught lbw on the back foot, and the next ball Mohammad Ashraful, edging a catch comfortably to Andrew Flintoff at second slip. Lewis missed out on his hat-trick off the first ball of the next over but after rain stopped play for a quarter of an hour following the seventh over Lewis struck again.

Nafees Iqbal flicked at an outswinger that was caught by Geraint Jones and left Bangladesh marooned at 39 for three and Lewis even more assured of his place in the England squad.

Michael Vaughan, the England captain, said before the match that Simon Jones would have played in place of Lewis but for pain in his knee. The England management will be pleased that Lewis is proving such an adept stand-in since Jones is clearly a man who knows the physio's room too well and will never play in every game.

Just when it looked as if Lewis was about to run through the side, Harmison started his own campaign of destruction. He began by forcing Tusher Imran to play on and in quick succession had both Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mashud caught behind so that six were out for 76.

One of the features of the Tests and Thursday's match was that the Bangladeshi fans cheered every run their men made no matter what the state of the game. It has been equalled by the spirit of the team that has never given a thought to the superiority of England. The determination gave it a worthwhile score.

Aftab Ahmed, who has hit the ball with ferocity for a small man, and the slow left arm bowler Mohammad Rafique put on 56 for the seventh wicket. Aftab hit two sixes and four fours in an innings of 51 in 58 balls; Rafique had a six and two fours in 30 before he was caught off Darren Gough and Aftab run out by Kevin Pietersen who caught Khaled Mahmud off Harmison`s next ball.

The last pair Mashrafe Mortaza and Nazmal Hossain put on 31 — including a memorable blazing back foot drive through the covers by Mortaza who also skied four over the wicket-keeper — so that at 190 Bangladesh had a respectable score.

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