Sagacious said:
This BD team was unknown identity to most of the teams till this WC. That's the one reason they are doing well. Once the other teams sort out their bowling, they will be back to their old 'standards'.Yesterday England exploited their batting weakness by bowling short of a length deliveries. SAF bowled poorly to them by feeding them with half volleys.I hope other teams will not repeat the mistake that SAF did.
Meanwhile, they didn't return the favour to South Africa, so some credit must be given somewhere.
The actual problem for South Africa in terms of bowling was that when Mohammad Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed came to the crease, they were content to let them get settled, probably figuring that they'd just hole out somehow. There were no slips in place and so they both went about dabbing singles to third man. It wasn't the couple of half volleys that Aftab Ahmed launched into the stands, it was all those good length balls that went to waste.
In spite of England having put in what seemed to be an outstanding bowling performance, the Bangladeshi Sakib Al Hasan was still able to do what even the mighty English couldn't do; score a half century. He adds another impressive performance to his short career and maintains his name high on this
list.
Bangladesh do have considerable talent as a team of very young cricketers, many of which would be considered too young for regular first class cricket in some countries. These teams they have defeated aren't idiots. It's a joke to say they are unknowns in this day of DVD post match analysis. South Africa don't have to wait until Bangladesh come to their shores, they can watch any of their matches. The plans would be laid if only to ensure that the method of laying plans is effective.
Now that said, I don't believe it should be so easy to make it through to the Super 8s. The Super 6 structure was better (and more interesting), although it must be said, the bottom half of the draw is so mediocre, Bangladesh may well have made it through on their merits. Still, it's not necessary for the development of their game that they play these matches; success at the World Cup should be the end result of the hard work; the work shouldn't begin at the World Cup. This goes the same for any other team. If Australia play bad cricket, they shouldn't make it through the group stage either. Increasing the pool to 8 lowers that yardstick, because if the expected sides are out of form, we get semi-professional sides like Ireland.
In my opinion, this is where the T20 Championship could fill a niche. We could have less associates at the World Cup, but balance that by having more at the T20. There's no chance of it running as long as the World Cup, plus it can be a more unpredictable format so the spectators are pleased. The small teams get this "exposure" that people keep talking about, while the World Cup is toughened up for the seasoned pros.
