***Official*** Sri Lanka in Bangladesh

[Adamc]

Ouch, 62 off Mashrafe's last four overs. Hard to see them getting close to that total, but with a depleted SL bowling attack there's always a chance. Hopefully Shahriar Nafees will come good today.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Mortaza went from match winning figures after 6 overs, to match losing figures after ten.

 

[BlackCap_Fan]

Ashraful is batting beautifully.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Sri Lanka seal the series, Bangladesh don't really have the firepower/application to chase down those sort of totals yet.

I've been away the last week - missed the whole series and spent ages waiting for ceefax to chug round and give me the score. I think I'm a bit obsessed when I woke up at 8 this morning just to check the score.

Good to see Ashraful in the runs, he looked a bit out of touch in the NCL recently so I was surprised to see him doing so well. IMO the selectors must become more consistant though: Javed Omar must be in the side for ODIs - he stabilises the innings well and was inexplicably dropped for the first ODI - he should open with Nafees.

Ideally I'd prefer to see Habibul at three, with Aftab down the order for a bit of acceleration. But Habibul has looked good at five, and it probably highlights something else Bangladesh require: a number three. Shahriar Nafees and Javed Omar seem to be a settled opening pair, Ashraful looks firm at four, Habibul could bat five and Aftab six, with Mashud, Kapali and the tail to come. Tushar Imran and Rajin Saleh have both played at three, with little success.

Why was Kapali at nine for the firsy game?

Musfiqur Rahim has been called up for the Tests

Squad: Habibul Bashar (c), Shahriar Nafees, Javed Omar, Nafees Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Alok Kapali, Rajin Saleh, Mushfiqur Rahim, Aftab Ahmed, Khaled Mashud (w), Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque, Syed Rasel, Tapash Baisya, Shahadat Hossain.

Mashrafe has been rested, according to cricinfo - huge loss.

Likely XI:

1 Javed Omar
2 Shahriar Nafees
3 Habibul Bashar (c)
4 Mohammad Ashraful
5 Aftab Ahmed
6 Mushfiqur Rahim (maybe Alok Kapali?)
7 Khaled Mashud (w)
8 Mohammad Rafique
9 Tapash Baisya
10 Enamul Haque jnr
11 Syed Rasel

 

[sirjeremy11]

Why on earth would they rest Mashrafe? He looked like he was forming a decent partnership with Rasel, and then they go and "rest" him...

Don't they want to compete?

 

[crickmate]

the physio didn't give him permission to play. He just recovered from injury. Though Bangladesh need him badly. But its better for the future.

Why on earth would they rest Mashrafe? He looked like he was forming a decent partnership with Rasel, and then they go and "rest" him...

Don't they want to compete?

 

[sirjeremy11]

the physio didn't give him permission to play. He just recovered from injury. Though Bangladesh need him badly. But its better for the future.

Unfortunate for current Bangladesh fans too. If they had one world class opener (averaging over 40 in tests) and one world class fast bowler (less than thirty in tests) this team would take huge strides, and all the others would play around them.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Bangladesh have cut (as expected) Tapash Baisya, (curiously) Aftab Ahmed and (unfortunately) Mushfiqur Rahim from their squad, leaving them with a straight choice from 12 players tomorrow morning.

Likely Teams: (as reported by me on CW news)

Bangladesh
1 Javed Omar, 2 Shahriar Nafees, 3 Habibul Bashar (c), 4 Mohammad Ashraful, 5 Nafees Iqbal, 6 Rajin Saleh or Alok Kapali, 7 Khaled Mashud (w), 8 Mohammad Rafique, 9 Syed Rasel, 10 Shahadat Hossain, 11 Enamul Haque jnr

Sri Lanka:
1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Michael Vandort, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (w), 4 Mahela Jayawardene (c), 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Farveez Maharoof, 8 Malinga Bandara, 9 Muttiah Muralitharan, 10 Dilhara Fernando, 11 Lasith Malinga

 

[sirjeremy11]

Bangladesh have cut (as expected) Tapash Baisya, (curiously) Aftab Ahmed and (unfortunately) Mushfiqur Rahim from their squad, leaving them with a straight choice from 12 players tomorrow morning.

Aftab?!!! What?

 

[TT Boy]

Aftab?!!! What?

Strange that...

Don't hold much hope for Bangladesh, you know Sri Lanka must be taking it easy when Michael Vandort gets another chance to play test cricket. Anybody know the point of playing him other than to keep Mubarak out of the team and the fact that he got a ton aganist them 4 years ago?

 

[chaminda_00]

Vandort deserves his spot, been playing very well for his club side and the A Team lately. Mubarak never should have played infront of him or Tharanga.

 

[Lostman]

Vandort is good player who is going to be a good test opener for SL for the next few years. Dumb selectors lack common sense, Vandort is >>>, kandamby, gunawardena, jayantha and the rest of the clowns the selectors have tried out for the test team.

 

[chaminda_00]

Vandort is good player who is going to be a good test opener for SL for the next few years. Dumb selectors lack common sense, Vandort is >>>, kandamby, gunawardena, jayantha and the rest of the clowns the selectors have tried out for the test team.

Jayantha and Kandamby were only tired in the ODI side if im not miss taken

 

[sirjeremy11]

Bangladesh 28/1 - They won the toss and lost Javed Omar c Samaraweera b Malinga for 5.

Bugger.

 

[JASON]

I so don`t understand you.

I support the under dog . And SL have played tripe in this series and deserved to lose the series !!

 

[JASON]

Bangers 3/139 - I hope they can get to 300 plus from hereon .

 

[JASON]

Murali on 995 wickets (584 Test Wickets and 411 ODI wickets) needs 5 more to become the only bowler ever to reach 1000 wickets in International Cricket !!

 

[Nate]

I hope beyond hope Ashraful can make 3 figures.

 

[BlackCap_Fan]

C'mon Ashraful, 97 now. If he gets this he'll have his third test century which'll make him the tied highest century maker for Bangladesh, with Bashar.

 

[andyc]

Ashers with 99*!