da blaze casino： It’s just seventeen days until Bangladesh step out to play their first Testmatch
Rick Eyre24-Oct-2000It’s just seventeen days until Bangladesh step out to play their first Testmatch. But as the momentous day approaches, it seems nothing is going right.Bangladesh just completed a demoralising three-game one-day series against aSouth African Invitational squad.A short two-week tour of South Africa intended to give the Bangladesh teamvaluable match practice prior to their inaugural Test has ended up assomething of a nightmare. The Test debutants suffered crushing defeats inback-to-back one-day games in the past two days.On Sunday at Pietermaritzburg, the Bangladesh side were dismissed for 51,losing by ten wickets in a match which was all over before lunch. Last nightat Kingsmead, Durban, they were bundled out for 57, losing by 202 runs.Last week, Bangladesh were beaten, though not humiliated, by Griqualand Westin the only first-class match of the tour, and their only multi-day game ofcompetitive cricket as a team since January. On Wednesday, they went down byseven wickets to the SA Invitational team in the first of the three-matchseries.With only two of the invitational squad having full international experiencefor South Africa – namely Dale Benkenstein and Nic Pothas – it was 25 yearold Boland seamer Charl Langeveldt who did the damage on Sunday, taking 5/7in four overs as Bangladesh collapsed in 18.3 overs. Mark Bruyns (18*) andGraeme Smith (28*) scored the required runs without the loss of a wicket, andthe game at Pietermaritzburg was all done in less than forty overs.Yesterday’s day-night encounter at Kingsmead lasted longer simply because theSouth Africans batted first, sent into bat by Naimur Rahman. The Invitationeleven made 259 for 5 in their fifty overs, with half-centuries to Smith(56), Ahmed Amla (68) and Martin van Jaarsveld (62). The Bangladesh bowlingwwas by no means disgraced. Left-arm spinner Naimur Rahman, probably the bestbowler on the tour, took 3/45 from nine overs, while Hasibul Hussain claimed2/33 from eight overs.The Bangladesh batting had no answer against the seam attack of CharlWilloughby and Mfuneko Ngam and slumped to 27 for 7 in the fourteenth overbefore reaching 57 after 27.2. Akram Khan batted for ninety minutes to remain10 not out in an attempt to preserve some dignity in proceedings, but thesupport was not there. Ngam finished with 4/20 from eight overs andWilloughby 3/9 from his eight.With no further competitive cricket until the historic opening day of theTest against India on November 10, the current slump could not have come at aworse time. A team that has never played so much as a single five-day matchhas been dismissed twice in two days in a total of 46 overs.Nonetheless, the Bangladesh Cricket Board are already planning ahead to theirnext Test opponents after India. BCB secretary Syed Ashraful Haq is reportedin today’s “Independent” (Dhaka) as saying that plans are afoot for a two-Test series against Pakistan in January if India’s tour of Pakistan iscancelled.There will be a problem, however… Bangabandhu National Stadium, the venuefor next month’s game against India, will almost certainly be unavailable, asit will be heavily in use for football once that Test is over. Alternativevenues, possibly the BKSP ground outside of Dhaka, or grounds at Rajshahi orChittagong, may come into play.The Bangladesh team are scheduled to enter a training camp at the BKSP groundwhen they return from South Africa this week, to begin their finalpreparations for their historic meeting with India. Judging from theirperformances over the past fortnight, they will need all the help they canget.