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Bd-Eng: Flintoff's Fireworks

Saturday, November 8 2003

Bangladesh slumped to yet another One-day International defeat at Chittagong as all-rounder Andrew Flintoff dominated with bat and ball in a game that made the World Cup Final seem close.

For all the strides the Bangladeshis have made in the longer game, there is still a cavernous divide between themselves and the rest of the world in the ODI arena and several of Bangladesh's nightmarish old habits came back to haunt them in the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong.

Winning the toss, Bangladesh made a promising start as they reached 50-1 in the fourteenth over for the loss of only one man, debutant Nafis Iqbal hanging the bat out to dry at a widish one from the returning James Anderson to give Marcus Trescothick catching practice at slip.

Once Flintoff was introduced into the attack, however, carnage ensued as the Bangladesh batting line-up failed to cope with the extra bounce that he managed to extract from an unhelpful pitch. Habibul Bashar was the first to fall, his edge off an attempted pull going no further than keeper Chris Read.

Hannan Sarkar (30) took the attack to left-armer Ashley Giles, sweeping him for two fours in his first over, but Rajin Saleh's attempted repeat performance in the next over resulted in a top edge and a chance that Rikki Clarke would take in his sleep. 65/3, and the self-destruct button was within arm's reach. Shortly afterwards, local umpire Mahbubur Rahman failed to give what seemed a blatant nick through to Read off Flintoff by Hannan. His reprieve lasted all of one ball, as another attempted pull resulted in the Read taking a sitter that not even Rahman could fail to notice.

The button had been pressed by now and there was no stopping the kamikaze procession of Bangladeshis. Captain Khaled Mahmud inexplicably chased a wide one and Read had more catching practice. Giles joined in the fun as Alok Kapali bizarrely played back to a fairly full ball directly in front of middle and off with the end result of one of the easier LBWs of Aleem Dar's career. Mushfiqur Rahman followed later that over, a leading edge resulting with an excellent diving catch in Giles' follow-through to leave the Tigers an inept 66/7.

It was only a retreat into Test cricket mindset and shot selection that saved them from complete embarrassment as wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud and debutant left-arm spinner Manjural Islam Rana added 34 in 14 overs for the seventh wicket before Khaled (14) guided the seventh ball of Rikki Clarke's over to England skipper Michael Vaughan at cover courtesy of a leading edge.

This brought the third of Bangladesh's new caps, off-spinner Jamaluddin Ahmed, to the crease, and his partnership with Rana (18) was brief as Ian Blackwell of all people pulled off a slick piece of outfielding, running out the youngster by a significant margin. Yet Jamaluddin (18*) atoned to an extent by adding 36 for the last wicket with Tapash Baisya (14) before the pace bowler's back foot defensive to another Flintoff short ball ended up in a caught and bowled and 4/14 off 9.4 exceptionally economical overs. Giles, seemingly having recaptured his rhythm, took 3/29 in Bangladesh's 143 all out, extras contributing 29 alongside Hannan's 30.

England raced to 39/0 off the first seven overs before a brief double setback prolonged the inevitable for a brief moment. Vikram Solanki (10) deposited a leading edge in the hands of Jamaluddin at mid-off from the bowling of Mushfiqur and Trescothick (28) guided the very next ball to Hannan at gully.

Michael Vaughan (9) also fell not long after, overbalancing fractionally attempting a sweep in Rana's first over - and courtesy of a smart piece of glovework from Khaled Mashud, the young left-arm spinner became the first Bangladeshi to take a wicket in his first over of International Cricket. Where Bangladesh capitulated, England accelerated and the arrival of Flintoff at the wicket resulted in the departure of the ball over the boundary from two big sixes off debutants Jamaluddin and Rana before the Lancastrian brought up his fifty off 45 balls courtesy of a swipe over midwicket for four off the unfortunate Rana.

England needed ten off the last 25 overs, and Paul Collingwood, playing the anchor to Flintoff's fireworks, joined the party, picking up three consecutive fours off Alok, lofted over mid on and midwicket and driven through extra cover to end on 36* with man-of-the-match Flintoff on 55*.

The series moves on to the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka for the final two ODIs, with the next being a floodlit encounter on Monday November 10. On today's showing, one of the sides has a lot more work to do than the other...

Bangladesh 143 (Hannan Sarkar 30, A Flintoff 4/14, AF Giles 3/29)

England 146/3 (A Flintoff 55*, PD Collingwood 36*, Mushfiqur Rahman 2/34)

England win by 7 wickets

CricketWeb Player of the Match: Andrew Flintoff (England)

Posted by Neil