England beat Bangladesh by 8 wickets
Nairobi, Oct 5: England beat Bangladesh comfortably by eight wickets with 6.1 overs to spare here today and qualified to meet South Africa in the quarter finals of the ICC cup on Oct 10.
Nasser Hussain, after a shaky start, grew in confidence and was unlucky to get out five runs short of his hundred.
Hussain, who came in one down, made 95 with six sixers. He struggled so much in the first part of his innings that his sudden acceleration came as a surprise to the Bangladesh bowlers.
He apparently decided to hit his way out of trouble. The first six was over mid wicket, followed by three big ones over the bowler's head. The last of them crossed long off by yards.
He lost his wicket to spinner Mohammed Rafique, trying an ambitious hit. The ball turned more than he expected and it became a simple return catch to the bowler.
Hussain put on 175 runs for the second with Alec Stewart, who remained unbeaten on 87. It was Stewart who gave the initial momentum to the innings with his fluent stoke-play, but he slowed down to see his team through. Stewart hit two wonderful sixes, one over mid wicket and one a straight six. It was only fitting that he received the Man of the Match award. Accompanying him at the win was Graeme Hick.
The other wicket to fall was that of Marcus Trescothick, caught behind off Hosibul Hossain, who gained doubtful fame as the bowler to send down 13 deliveries in his first over -- six no balls, one wide and 6 legitimate deliveries.
Bangladesh have to improve their bowling skills considerably if they want to win matches. The time will come, but today, England triumphed easily.
Earlier, Bangladesh did extremely well to make 232 runs for 8 wickets.
Confidence seemed to be the watchword for Bangladesh today. Right from opting to bat after winning the toss, to hitting a four off the very first ball, to being unafraid of scoring off bad balls, the men from Dhaka seemed in control.
Despite Andrew Caddick trying his best, England let the game slip a little in the slog overs. The Bangladeshis picked the gaps in the field with ease and did not let the loss of wickets make them nervous. They scored 83 runs in the last ten overs, which sounds more like a Sri Lankan or Pakistani effort!
If a single Bangladeshi batsman had to be picked for special praise today, it was Javed Omar. He is a classy player with loads of talent. He also seems to have an excellent temperament.
After having to go off the field with an injured finger (it was a Caddick ball which did the damage), Omar overcame pain to come back at the fall of the fourth wicket. The opener stayed till the end to make an unbeaten 63.
The highlight of his innings was a wonderful straight six. Masud hit two sixers, both off Ealham and the last ball too went over the ropes with the batsman being last man in Hasibul Hossain. The bowler Gough was stunned and stared angrily at the insult.
The other important contributions came from the new skipper, Naimur Rehman (46) and Aminul Islam (30).
The pick among the bowlers was Caddick, who got two for 35. He might have got more if the catching had been better.
