This was great win for Bangladesh. Much greater than the one against India. We are most happy that Andre Nel, despite a fiver fer, did not win the match for SA. Thank God for small mercies. It was excruciating watching the Bangladesh innings as Nel took wickets at regular intervals. All our pain vanished when Ashraful started to open up. There were three cheeky boundaries where Ashraful, trusting his hand eye coordination, moved across the off stump and glided the fast bowlers past fine leg.
If those boundaries were cheeky, his square drive off Langeveldt was the shot of the match. That was a glorius hit. We envy the high Ashraful must have got when he hit that shot. That was a shot of a man in full control of his batting. He squared up to a fullish ball on the off-stump, opened up the face of the bat and drove the ball beautifully past Point. What a shot. Mortaza pitched in with a great cameo and contributed 25 very useful runs. Ashraful's masterly 87 took Bangladesh to a very respectable total of 251 in 50 overs.
South Africa were completely outplayed. They lost wickets regularly and at no stage looked like they were going to win the match. Rafique and Razzak were brilliant and consistently troubled the batsmen. These guys can teach the dart thrower (Harbhajan) a trick or two.
SA should have won the match. Like the brilliant L.Sivaramakrishnan said: "They need a big partnership". Actually, L. Siva is a very bad commentator and is very irritating (not as much as Ranjit Fernando though) and if he figured it out that to win a cricket match, a big partnership is needed, South Africa must have figured it out too. Or maybe we are giving the Saffies too much credit.
SA didn't get the big partnership they needed to win the match because Andre Nel failed. Andre Nel should take complete responsibility for this loss and retire from cricket. SA was well on its way to victory and were cruising along at 132 for 7 when Nel joined Gibbs at the crease. What was needed was a big partnership to see SA home. What they got was Nel getting out for 1 run. Instead of a "big partnership" SA got a "very small partnership" between Nel and Gibbs (5 runs). That is not acceptable.
Andre Nel can't help himself. He is a bully and will not retire from cricket. Therefore, SA must do the right thing and drop him from the team. Andrew Hall would have given SA the "big partnership" they needed.
We are happy that Bangladesh beat SA. SA is much bigger scalp than India. Now everyone can stop talking about Bd beating India and instead, focus on Bd beating SA.
We are pumped for tomorrow's match between Ravi Bopara and Australia. Should be fun.
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The Ashraful innings reminded me of another he played against England in 2005. Shortly after he came on field, he got beaten neck and crop by a ball that, basically, hit his stumps. The bails did not fall off. He decided that this must be a signal from the Almighty and let loose one of the more delightful displays of batting I have seen. He really took Harmison apart in that game...made 90-something and got out. Maybe, like today, the Almighty did not intend for him to make the century. Really wish the Almighty was a little more sporting!
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