Sri Lanka v Bangladesh, 1st Test, Galle, 8-12 March, 2013

638 then

Has Nasser come back out of retirement?

This game has features a plethora of endurance batting within an ultimately rather pointless exercise.

Unless you are a Bangla fan.

Bangladesh have some decent talent. Tamim Iqbal has done well and is only 23. He has four Test hundreds including two in England. Shakib Al-Hasan requires little introduction. He has 102 Test wickets including 5fers against all nations bar minnows Australia and Zimbabwe. He takes his wickets at 32 and scores his runs at 36. He'd get into most Test sides. Mushfiqur Rahim has a solid enough record for a keeper batsman. And he bats at 6 which, with the Bangladesh adjuster, is like batting at 3 for anybody else.

There are big problems though. Their seamers are dreadful. Everyone in the country bowls some form of finger spin. The BPL injures their best players. And because they're generally uncompetitive, they don't get enough exposure to top level cricket. I'm of the opinion that they're an asset to international cricket and deserve to be treated with respect. They haven't been around that long but they are progressing, albeit slowly.

They need to 'plant' a couple of medium-pacers with Notts.

Make men out of them.

Although this does seem like the match is now going only one way, I wouldn't call it "pointless". This was a huge effort, in the absence of their star player, to save what appeared to be a doomed match.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:Bangladesh have some decent talent. Tamim Iqbal has done well and is only 23. He has four Test hundreds including two in England. Shakib Al-Hasan requires little introduction. He has 102 Test wickets including 5fers against all nations bar minnows Australia and Zimbabwe. He takes his wickets at 32 and scores his runs at 36. He'd get into most Test sides. Mushfiqur Rahim has a solid enough record for a keeper batsman. And he bats at 6 which, with the Bangladesh adjuster, is like batting at 3 for anybody else.

There are big problems though. Their seamers are dreadful. Everyone in the country bowls some form of finger spin. The BPL injures their best players. And because they're generally uncompetitive, they don't get enough exposure to top level cricket. I'm of the opinion that they're an asset to international cricket and deserve to be treated with respect. They haven't been around that long but they are progressing, albeit slowly.

Can they not send their young seamers over to Pakistan to develop them? They seem to turn out a decent pace attack almost without fail, despite the problems in Pakistan in general, match-fixing and other off the field issues, there always seems to be a next cab off the rank, whereas in Bangladesh there's nobody even answering the phone at the taxi office...

So Sanga filled his boots again.

Becoming a bit of a FTB.

What are the odds of the Bangers imploding in this final session....

217 runs needed in 22 overs.

drawn

from cricinfo:

James: "Homework for both sides: 3 things to make the rest of this series more interesting. Try taking catches, less flat pitch and adventurous declarations".

Will Galle be receiving a warning for this pitch like they did for the Australia test?

What an abomination of a test match.

Disgraceful match. SL love these runfest, meaningless tests but go missing away under high pressure. Sanga cashes in like no other. No wonder his average is mid=50s. What a fraud - certainly didn't justify that average this summer.

They also seem to play junk opposition more than most.

What about in Hobart in 2006 or 7? He seems to have regressed recently even on flat tracks, but he's been class.

Weird that Galle has been such a flat pitch though. Usually a result wicket

beamer wrote:

Chivalry Augustus wrote:Bangladesh have some decent talent. Tamim Iqbal has done well and is only 23. He has four Test hundreds including two in England. Shakib Al-Hasan requires little introduction. He has 102 Test wickets including 5fers against all nations bar minnows Australia and Zimbabwe. He takes his wickets at 32 and scores his runs at 36. He'd get into most Test sides. Mushfiqur Rahim has a solid enough record for a keeper batsman. And he bats at 6 which, with the Bangladesh adjuster, is like batting at 3 for anybody else.

There are big problems though. Their seamers are dreadful. Everyone in the country bowls some form of finger spin. The BPL injures their best players. And because they're generally uncompetitive, they don't get enough exposure to top level cricket. I'm of the opinion that they're an asset to international cricket and deserve to be treated with respect. They haven't been around that long but they are progressing, albeit slowly.

Can they not send their young seamers over to Pakistan to develop them? They seem to turn out a decent pace attack almost without fail, despite the problems in Pakistan in general, match-fixing and other off the field issues, there always seems to be a next cab off the rank, whereas in Bangladesh there's nobody even answering the phone at the taxi office...

My impression is that pitches and batsmen in domestic cricket are so poor that bowlers don't need a full skill-set and therefore cannot develop. I base this only on reading reports and analysing scorecards. Their bowlers definitely need to play abroad. Mortaza and Shahadat aren't exactly slow but they aren't good, either. To be fair, either side of Murali, Sri Lanka have been no better.

Ah well, GWS, Shakib.

Is Tamim likely to be out for the 2nd test?

Chivalry Augustus wrote: ... impression is that pitches and batsmen in domestic cricket are so poor that bowlers don't need a full skill-set and therefore cannot develop

... a problem not only in Banglaadesh and Sri Lanka, but also in the West Indies for years, and more recently in Australia ... it's a problem reflecting overall cricket depth. Ultimately this general low batting quality which has encouraged bowlers to remain static and undeveloped backfires even on those few better FC batsmen the unchallenged bowlers do come across, as they do not have the resources to withstand a concerted attack from two good bowlers when they meet them at Test level. Exhibit A = Phil Hughes.