Bangladesh, yes Bangladesh, have taken a 158-run lead against Australia in the ensuing test match. And had Gilchrist not played the innings of his lifetime to score 144 runs in a team total of 269 in reply to Bangladesh’s 427, Australia would have been forced to follow-on (though if I were Bangladesh captain, I would play my second inning without enforcing follow-on, and make Australia play the fourth inning on a deteriorating pitch).
And to top that, Bangladesh scored 355 runs on the first day itself in 88 overs at an average of over 4, against a bowling attacking comprising Lee, Gillespie and none other than Shane Warne! And then Australia really struggled to come close to that total at a batting average of under 3. Five batsmen failed to reach double figures against a pretty-mediocre bowling attack. Not a pretty situation for Australia after having recently lost an ODI to the minnows. Where is the world’s greatest cricket team going? And where is the world’s worst cricket team going???
That also brings me to Shane Warne, the world’s most successful bowler ever, and still going strong. Time & again one has been reading articles from various Australians and Shane himself of how most of Murali’s wickets have come against weak teams including many of them against Bangladesh, and how Shane’s tally is not increasing at the same rate because of Australia not playing against such teams. Shane bowled 20 overs going wicketless against the same Bangladeshi’s in the first inning. Not to say that the wicket had nothing for the spinners. His other spinner team-mate Stuart MacGill took 8 of the 10 to fall in the first. Even in the second inning, thus far, Shane has not been able to scalp a single stump, from the 5 fallen so far, and he has again bowled 20% of the overs (8 out of 40 bowled so far) like the first inning. I don’t know whether it is Shane’s bad luck or MacGill’s good luck!!! The only non-suprising element here has been that Warne has never been successful against the Asian cricketers, and Bangladesh seem to be no different from India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka for him. Now at least, somebody should tell him to shut up about Murali. Not that I am a big supporter of the Sri Lankan, but then I’m not a great supporter of Shane either.
At stumps today, Bangladesh lead with 288 runs with 5 wickets to spare. Unless they score another 100-odd to reach close to 400, I don’t think Australia should find it really, really difficult to beat them. But considering the first inning, even 288 should give the Bangladeshi’s an easy win. But where the match seems headed, one will come to know only tomorrow – on the way Bangladesh bat and on the way Australia bat thereafter.
Should be an interesting match to witness. More from the academic perspective than from the cricketing perspective. And more interesting would be seeing how Australia salvage their image hereafter.
