England’s Clean Sweeps Victory over Bangladesh
The last cricket match between England and Bangladesh ended with same fashion with England marking its win by 45 runs and claiming the series 3-0.
Opener Craig Kieswetter, who is on his first England tour, follows through on a cover drive on way to scoring the maiden century in the third and final ODI against Bangladesh at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday.
Although Bangladesh has shown their great talent which drew attention to all international players and left the England team greatly challenged, failed to win a game.
Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh captain, identified bowling in the Powerplay overs as one weak point that they needed to work on in order to win matches against bigger nations in one-day cricket.
Shakib’s boys conceded 107 runs in the last ten overs, 55 of them coming in the batting Powerplay, during the third and final ODI of the Beximco Series at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium here yesterday. That leaking of runs proved too costly in the end as they lost the match by 45 runs to give the visitors a 3-0 wrap.
“Bowling in the Powerplay overs is a problem for us. We give away too many runs in that part which have cost us dear. It is very important to bowl well in Powerplay overs if you want to win,” said the Bangladesh captain.
The Bangladesh captain had earlier said number three and four batting positions are a problem too which needs to be addressed.
However, Shakib was pretty satisfied with the overall performance from the Tigers in the series.
“We played good cricket overall, came close in the second match. We are improving with every game which is very satisfying. We are not having big problems, rather small problems which we need to sort out,” said Shakib.
Shakib scored thirty-eight runs from as many balls in yesterday’s match and the whole team were banking on him to play a big knock and he felt it too.
“I thought if I could score 80 today, we would win. There was turn for the first thirty overs in the first innings, then it got easier for batting,” said Shakib.
Shakib was adjudged leg-before wicket against part-time spinner Kevin Pietersen, but replays showed that the ball hit his leg outside the off-stump after pitching outside. After his dismissal, Bangladesh innings disintegrated fast. But Shakib was in no mood to blame the umpire in question — Enamul Haque — for losing the match.
“Umpiring is a tough job. Sometimes these things happen, not that they are done intentionally against the lesser nations. Overall umpiring was good today [Friday], apart from the one crucial error,” said Shakib.
Though Shakib believed that the umpire’s job in one-day cricket could be made easier and more accurate with installation of the referral system, which is currently used in Tests only.
Shakib’s counterpart Alastair Cook was very happy with wrapping up the series 3-0 on his first assignment. He specially praised opening batsman Craig Kieswetter and pacer Tim Bresnan for their performances in the last match. Kieswetter scored 107 runs off 123 balls to help England post a mammoth 284 on the board and Bresnan later took four wickets to thwart the run chase.
“Craig was fantastic today. He showed how one-day cricket should be played. Tim too was fantastic. He stood up to be counted,” said Cook.
Kieswetter was elated at his effort and said he would cherish this innings for long.
“It’s nice to have a hundred under your belt, and your first tour at that. This is something I’m gonna cherish for long,” said Kieswetter.
The 22-year-old batsman now looks forward to a probable place in England’s final squad for the T20 World Championship that kicks off in April 30.
Eoin Morgan was given the Man of the Series for scoring the most runs in the 3 match series.
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