bangladesh

Is the New ICC Cricket World Cup format a hit or flop?

admin — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 04:48:45 +0000

This year’s ICC Cricket World Cup is a bit different. It’s not only about rains ruining the matches but also about the length of the tournament.

When the England team destroyed the Afghanistan bowling line up in the recently concluded match of the World Cup, I blamed this new format for this. The question here is for how long a new team like Afghanistan would be humiliated in 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup?

This tournament is played in a round robin format where every team has to play against nine other teams. Due to this, the relatively weak teams like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have to play their matches against seven strong teams. If we think about the 4 or 5 cricket teams that are comparatively stronger than the rest, then they are also playing their matches against 5 or 6 weaker teams! That means, multiple records will be broken and we would be witnessing more boring matches in this Cricket World Cup. Also, thanks to non-ending English rains for that.

The ICC Cricket World Cup is supposed to be an interesting tournament where every match must be crucial for each team. Every game must be played as a knock-out match for cricket teams.

In the previous seasons, the competition had been quite intense where many weak teams like Kenya, Bangladesh knocked out strong teams from the tournament. This all happened due to the pool playing format where the competition was extremely tough. Every team in each match had the capability to knock out the other based on their day’s performance. This no longer will happen in this format. This Cricket World Cup, each team will continue to play until everyone becomes sure that they are better or weaker than then rest nine teams of the tournament. That sounds boring, Isn’t it?

Such a format (Round robin) works well in a T20 tournament where every game is unpredictable until the last ball is bowled. However, that doesn’t happen in 50 over matches. Here, few games are enough to decide which one is a better team and consistent to perform well. Then why there is a need to keep proving it again for n number of times? Also, the team which is weak, why they have to keep getting humiliated until everyone knows that they are actually the weakest in the tournament.

Below are the advantages and disadvantages of the round-robin format of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019:

Disadvantages:
1. Long and boring tournament.
2. No unpredictability in the tournament. All matches are not interesting and the tournament is becoming quite straight forward.
3. Humiliating to the weaker teams to keep losing.

Advantages:
1. Opportunity for cricket teams to play against every other team and gain exposure.
2. Only the best teams are moved to the semifinals. No scope of others.
3. Opportunity for teams to break more records.

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A series win for Bangladesh

admin — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 10:28:41 +0000

There was a time when West Indies was considered quite a tough challenge and Bangladesh, the weakest among all test playing countries. However, the time has changed drastically. During the West Indies tour of Bangladesh, the host nation defeated West Indies quite comfortably by 2-1 in One Day International Series. Shai Hope from West Indies was declared as the player of the series in ODIs.

In the first ODI, West Indies gave a target of 196 runs to Bangladesh after they just managed to score 195/9 in 50 overs with a run rate of 3.9. The wicketkeeper-batsman Shai Hope scored the highest 43 runs for his team. Both Mustafizur Rahman and Mashrafe Mortaza took three-three wickets each and kept the run flow of West Indies in their control since the beginning. Bangladesh chased the target in just 35.1 overs after losing five wickets. Mushfiqur Rahim remained unbeaten with a score of 55 runs and Liton Das contributed 41 runs for the team.

The second match was entertaining as we saw a good fight between the two teams. Bangladesh scored 255/7 in their 50 overs with the help of half-centuries of Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan. Oshane Thomas took three wickets for West Indies including the precious wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim. The score was competitive enough for Bangladesh, but the opening batsman Shai Hope gave all the hope to West Indies fans. He came to open and stayed till 50 overs to make his team win by four wickets with an unbeaten score of 146 runs.

The third and the final ODI was majorly a one-sided match. Except Shai Hope who took the burden of the whole team on his shoulder scored 108 runs and again remained not out. No other West Indies player supported him or stood with him longer on the crease. The total score was 198/9 in 50 overs. Mehidy Hasan Miraz took four wickets with an economy of just 2.9. Both Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza took two wickets each. Bangladesh was confident even after losing their first wicket at the score of 45 runs. The partnership of 131 runs between Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar make everything appear easy for Bangladesh as they chased the target in just 38.2 overs. Soumya Sarkar scored 80 runs, and Tamim Iqbal remained unbeaten scoring 81 runs.

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The Asia cup was thrilling……..until the last ball was bowled!

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2018 13:15:08 +0000

We certainly didn't hope that the Asia Cup would start in such a manner. Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 137 runs ensured that Sri Lanka lost their leftover cricketing skill with Dilshan! Mushfiqur Rahim's 144 runs helped Bangladesh to set a strong target of 261 runs, which Sri Lanka couldn't even think of achieving. The whole Sri Lanka team stumbled after scoring just 124 runs.

The match between Hong Kong and Pakistan went as per our expectation. Pakistan won the match by eight wickets after chasing a mere total of 117 runs.

We were not even recovered by the shock of Sri Lanka loss in the first match, and they again lost. This time it was against Afghanistan! We always knew about three talented players of Afghanistan - Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi, but we realised there were more of them in their team. So, Sri Lanka scored just 158 runs while chasing a target of 250 runs and lost again. They were out of the Super Four with that loss.

Hong Kong gave a good fight to India in the next match and gave their best chasing a total of 286 runs. They managed to score 259 runs in 50 overs, or we should say, survived for full 50 overs! India won just by 26 runs.

Pakistan Vs India was the most boring match of the Asia Cup as Pakistan just scored 162 runs which India won quite easily with eight wickets in hand. The next game was astonishing for us! We saw the all-round capabilities of Rashid Khan where he scored 57 runs in 32 balls and took two wickets. Experienced Bangladesh failed to chase a total of 256 and fell after scoring just 119. Afghanistan won by 136 runs. The initial four Super Four matches were quite predictable than the last two.

India defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets in a low scoring match. Pakistan defeated Afghanistan by three wickets after chasing 258 runs to win. By then, we were highly impressed by the whole Afghanistan squad who gave us hope, that even average people can do wonders in their lives! The other person who impressed us was the known Shoaib Malik, our universal Brother-in-law. He helped Pakistan team to escape a loss by staying till the end and scoring 51 runs. He again fought hard against India and scored 78 runs. India received a target of 238 runs to chase and win. Both the Indian openers, Rohit and Dhawan, made it look so easy when they both scored centuries. India won the match by nine wickets.

In the next match, Bangladesh managed to take revenge against Afghanistan and won the match against them by setting a target of 250 runs. However, the win didn't come so easily as Bangladesh won it by just three runs! The next match was shocking not because India gave rest to both of their openers against Afghanistan. Also, not because they gave a chance to some young talented players but because it ended with a tie! A thrilling match where Afghanistan scored 252 runs in 50 overs, again surviving for the whole 50 overs against India! And just before one ball was left and one run to win, India bowled out for 252 runs! The match was a tie, and we were as amazed as the rest of the cricket fans. The last match of the Super Four was also a shocker as Bangladesh defeated Pakistan by 37 runs. Pakistan couldn't chase a total of 239 and was able to score only 202 runs.

Both Afghanistan and Bangladesh gave us hope that ordinary people like us have the power to beat talented people with hard work. So, we were super excited to see the final between Bangladesh and India and we were not disappointed at all. Bangladesh scored 222 runs with Liton Das scoring 121 runs. India was slower than expected and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The match went to the last ball when India needed one to win the match, and they scored the winning run by a leg bye! As usual, India won the Asia Cup on the last ball, but whatever that happened earlier to that made us believe that anything can happen in cricket.

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