Australia\\\'s tour of Bangladesh
Friday, 28 August 2015
Australia is coming on a tour to Bangladesh from September 28 to October 21, 2015. They will play two Test matches.
The first Test match will be played at Zohur Ahmed Chouwdury Stadium, Chittagong and the second at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka.
The longest form of cricket is Test cricket which was first officially recognised on March 15-19, 1877 when a Test match was played between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where Australia won by 45 runs. What a miracle! The similarity is also found in the 100th Test match, when Australia won by the same margin of 45 runs aginst England at the MCG on March 12-17, 1977.
In 2003, Bangladesh played two Test matches against Australia. The first Test match was played at the Australia's Marrara Cricket Ground, Darwin. Australia won by an innings and 132 runs.
Bangladesh performed poorly in the first innings scoring only 97 runs all out. Muhammad Ashraful scored 23 runs with a four which was the highest score of Bangladesh innings. Mashrafe took 3 wickets for 74 runs. Austalia scored 407 runs for seven declared. In the second innings, Bangladesh did a little better and was all out for 178 runs. The notable scorers were Habibul Bashar (54), Al Sahriar (36) and opener Hannan Sarker (35).
The second Test match was played at Australia's Bundaberg Rum stadium, Cains. The outcome of the match was the same. Even though Australia won by an innings and 98 runs, Bangladesh scored 295 runs all out in the first innings with Hannan Sarker scoring 76, Habibul Bashar 46, Sanwar Hossain 46 and Khaled Masud 44. Sanwar Hossain took 2 wickets for 128 runs. Australia scored 556 for four wickets and declared the innings.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh collapsed again scoring 163 runs all out. Hannan Sarker and Habibul Bashar did well with the bat scoring 55 and 25 runs respectively.
Bangladesh is now a force to reckon with in One Day Internationals (ODI) beating India, Pakistan and South Africa. The Test cricket of Bangladesh needs some improvement in mindset and in the three branches of cricket, e.g., batting, bowling and fielding to be able to beat a strong Australian outfit.
Iftu Ahmed
Aurora, IL USA
iftuahmed@sbcglobal.net