aussie1st said:
Bangladesh blew it well before then. That was just the final nail in the coffin. If they wanted to win they needed to score way more than they did in the 2nd inns. You can't score 150 or under in the 2nd inns when you only have a 150 run lead. That's where they lost it.
To be very honest mate, the fact that we had a fifth day in this match, with both teams in the game, was a surprise. Credit must go to the Aussies, who had just completed a long and tiresome tour of South Africa, and were then forced on the backfoot by Bangladesh on the first two days. Yet, they came back and got the result in the end. Clearly shows how used Australia are to winning, that they can fight back from any possible situation.
But for Bangladesh, ranked 10th in the world, to push Australia, the world's best test and one day playing nation, so far, and having outplayed them for two full days, is a great achievement. Mind you it is not easy to dominate the Australians in a test match, as Mr. Graeme Smith will tell you. So even though the Aussies might have been tired after their long tour of SA, and even though they might have taken it a bit easy in the start, Bangladesh must have played well to have taken the advantage of that.
Again then, it must be realised that oppurtunities like these dont come very often. Bangladesh could have really caused an upset here, but their 2nd innings batting performance was nothing short of disgraceful. It nulified their first innings heroics, and allowed Australia to come back into the game. And believe me you dont want to do that. If it had been any other team, to lose a test match after having a lead of 150+ in the first innings, is simply devastating.
But then, thats the beauty of test cricket. You have to play well throughout to win, and hence we see a lot fewer upsets in test matches than in ODIs. It is test cricket that gives you the true indication of the strengths and weaknessess of a team.
