Tigers
Tigers must try to defend just 127 as batters fail again
Bangladesh posted a very modest 127/7 from their allotted 20 overs against Afghanistan in their first match of the Asia Cup in Sharjah.
Mosaddek Hossain scored the highest unbeaten 48 off 31 balls while Mahmudullah Riyad scored 25 off 27 balls. Four of Bangladesh’s first five batters failed to reach a double-digit score. Bangladeshi batters failed to play well against the Afghan spinners.
Bangladesh won the toss but they failed horribly to justify the decision. They lost both the openers inside the powerplay, and they managed only 50 runs in the first 10 overs losing two more wickets.
Mohammad Naim, who was called to the team for his hundred for Bangladesh A against the West Indies A, failed once again to prove his mettle in the T20Is. Anamul Haque Bijoy, Naim’s opening partner, who recently scored two fifties in the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe, was also disappointed with the bat in this match.
Bangladesh badly missed the service of Liton Das who is not part of the Bangladesh team in the Asia Cup due to an injury.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman picked up all of the first three wickets Bangladesh lost. And Rashid Khan came in and removed Mushfqiur Rahim.
Read: Asia Cup 2022: BAN vs AFG Match Live Streaming Details
In the fifth wicket stand, Mahmudullah Riyad and Afif Hossain added 25 runs. The stand was broken when Afif fell prey to Rashid as his third scalp.
Bangladesh could manage only 87 runs in 15 overs for five wickets. In the last five overs, Bangladesh managed only 40 runs losing two more wickets.
For Afghanistan, Mujeeb and Rashid scalped three wickets each.
While Bangladesh started their Asia Cup campaign with this match, Afghanistan have already played a match and won that by eight wickets against Sri Lanka in the event opener.
Tigers want to clip high-flying Afghans' wings
Bangladesh will start their Asia Cup campaign Tuesday with the match against Afghanistan who are flying high after beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the event opener.
Despite being a more experienced side than Afghanistan, Bangladesh are far behind them in the shortest format of the game.
The Afghans lost a series earlier this month against Ireland, but they came back strongly against Sri Lanka to make a flying start to the Asia Cup. Their pacers ripped through the Sri Lankan batting order.
However, Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan said they are not tagging Afghanistan as a bad or good team. "We are looking forward to proving our mettle in the field."
In the first match of the Asia Cup, Afghan pace duo Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq destroyed Sri Lanka's batting.
Read: Asia Cup 2022: 8 milestones within sight of Bangladesh players
Chasing 105 runs, Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz won the match in 10.1 overs.
And in the absence of Liton Das, Bangladesh might go with Anamul Haque and Mohammad Naim as the openers.
Naim was axed earlier from the T20 team. Now he is back after hitting a century in a 50-over match for Bangladesh A team against the West Indies A.
Mohammad Saifuddin and Sabbir Rahman, who were out of international cricket for a long time, are surprising inclusions in the playing XI.
However, Bangladesh will heavily rely on Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim.
With this match against Afghanistan, Shakib will become the third Bangladeshi to play 100 T20s after Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur.
The match will begin at 8pm Tuesday and will be telecast live on T-Sports.
Probable Bangladesh XI
Mohammad Naim, Anamul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Afif Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah Riyad, Sabbir Rahman, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Nasum Ahmed, and Mustafizur Rahman
Sundarban tigers: Inbreeding leads to generation of weak, diseased cubs
Due to different barriers to free movement of tigers in the Sundarbans, inbreeding occurs among a small population - compromising the genetic diversity of these big cats which eventually results in diseased and weak cubs. Chief conservator of Forest Department Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury told UNB, “Big rivers like Shibsa, Poshur, and Pangashia are dividing the Bengal tiger into small populations, which result in inbreeding. Inbreeding among tigers with similar genes increases the morbidity and mortality rate of the tigers.” Transferring of the tigers from one population to another inside the Sundarbans can increase their genetic variety, possibility to survive and as a result the number of tigers will rise, he added. Amid the growing concern over extinction facing the tiger, 13 tiger-populated countries including Bangladesh are celebrating International Tiger Day 2022 on Friday with different programmes to create awareness.
Read: Panic after tiger strays into Satkhira village This year’s slogan for the day is "Tiger is our pride, everyone's responsibility to protect”. According to Sundarbans East Forest Department the tiger population may increase in Bangladesh part of Sundarbans in this year’s census, which is good news for environmentalists and animal lovers across the globe. According to a survey conducted in 2018 by camera trapping, there were 114 tigers.
PM congratulates Tigers on ODI series win against Caribbeans
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday congratulated all players, coaches and the manager of the Bangladesh cricket team for their ODI series win against the West Indies on their soil.
In the congratulatory message, she hoped that the Tigers would continue their all-out efforts.
Read: PM congratulates Tigers on historic ODI series win against Proteas
Today, Bangladesh sealed the series as they went 2-0 up with a comprehensive 9-wicket win at the Providence Stadium in Guyana and extended their unbeaten streak against the West Indies to 10.
Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed won the player of the match award in his second ODI match. He bagged three wickets after Bangladesh chose to bowl first. The Tigers managed to restrict their hosts to 108/10 in 35 overs.
In reply to the West Indies' 108, Bangladesh won the match in just 20.4 overs, with Tamim scoring an unbeaten 50, and Liton Das 32.
Bangladesh won the first ODI at the same venue by six wickets.
The third and last ODI will be played at the same venue Saturday.
Ahead of the ODI series, Bangladesh lost both the Test and T20I series against the hosts.
WI vs BAN: Tigers eye to thrive against younger Caribbeans
The first Test of the two-match series between the hosts West Indies and Bangladesh is all set to begin Thursday at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua.
The series has been named after the Padma Bridge – "Padma Bridge Dream Fulfilled Friendship Test Series Presented by Walton."
In Test cricket, the Tigers are more experienced than the Caribbeans who recently played against Pakistan in a different format and a different condition.
Kraigg Brathwaite will lead the hosts who will miss the services of Jason Holder and Kemar Roach.
The West Indies have included three uncapped players in their Test squad which is already a young side.
Bangladesh will look to regain their confidence in Tests in this series under the captaincy of Shakib Al Hasan who returned to the role after Mominul Haque stepped aside recently.
In the last series at home against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh suffered a 1-0 defeat. There were some individual flashes of brilliance, but that was not enough for the Tigers to avoid a sweeping defeat.
If experience is an advantage for the visitors, they may suffer playing against the Dukes ball which is not used in the subcontinent. The hosts' pacers could pose a serious challenge with this type of ball in their backyard.
READ: WI vs BAN Series 2022: Where to Watch Live Streaming
Bangladesh will miss the service of Mushfiqur Rahim who chose to not play in this series due to personal reasons. Yasir Ali Rabbi who suffered a back injury during the tour match was subsequently ruled out of the series.
Liton Das might not keep wicket in this series. Nurul Hasan Sohan might get a place in the playing XI as a specialist wicketkeeper.
This series will be a great chance for the Tigers to get some points for the ICC World Test Championship. Bangladesh have only one win in this cycle of the event. They beat the hosts New Zealand earlier this year.
The first match will begin at 8pm Bangladesh time Thursday. However, it is still not clear who will telecast the series in Bangladesh. As of Wednesday evening, the Bangladesh Cricket Board was unable to provide any information about it.
Probable Bangladesh XI
Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudul Hasan, Najmul Hossain, Mominul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das (vc), Nurul Hasan (wk), Mosaddek Hossain, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Mustafizur Rahim
Probable West Indies XI
Kraigg Brathwaite (c), John Campbell, N Bonner, Kyle Mayers, Jermaine Blackwood (vc), Joshua Da Silva, Raymon Reifer, Alzarri Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales
Durban Test: Tigers fold inside an hour on day 5
Bangladesh were dismissed for their second lowest score in Test cricket on the last day of the first Test against South Africa on Monday, losing the match by 220 runs.
Bangladesh needed to score 274 to win this match. But they were all out for 53 in just 19 overs. Keshav Maharaj scalped seven wickets conceding 32 runs while the other spinner Simon Harmer took three wickets.
At the end of day four, Bangladesh were at 11 for three in six overs. For the first time in their history, South Africa opened the bowling with spinners in the Test at home, and they got a good result from both ends. While Harmer removed Shadman Islam as the first wicket, Keshav scalped the second and third wickets— Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Mominul Haque.
South Africa did not require any other bowler to dismantle the Tigers. Keshav bowled 10 overs and Harmer bowled nine to wipe out all Bangladeshi batters.
The two unbeaten batters were Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Hossain Shanto, both failed to take up the onus. Shanto scored 26, but Mushfiqur failed to add anything on the board. Apart from Shanto, Taskin Ahmed was the other batter to reach a double digit total— 14.
READ: South Africa win 1st test as Bangladesh all out for 53
Bangladesh lost all of their last seven wickets in just 16 overs with Keshav taking five of them.
“We tried to play according to the merit of the ball. We wanted to play till the final session. Unfortunately we lost three wickets last night, that was crucial. We are used to playing spin. We also know that Durban spins from 3rd-4th day, we didn't capitalise well with the bat,” Bangladesh captain told the broadcasters.
Earlier, South Africa ended their second innings on 204 in 74 overs. Captain Dean Elgar posted the highest 64 while Keegan Petersen and Ryan Rickelton posted 36 and 39 respectively.
For Bangladesh, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Ebadot Hossain bagged three wickets each. Taskin Ahmed also scalped two wickets.
In the first innings of this Test, South Africa posted 367 with Elgar and Temba Bavuma leading their batting line-up scoring 67 and 93.
Khaled Ahmed led Bangladesh’s bowling, taking four wickets— his best in the format, while Mehidy Hasan took three.
In reply, Bangladesh’s first innings was a heroic show by Joy who hit a ton in his first Test in South Africa. Riding on his century, Bangladesh ended up on 298. Joy fell as the last batter scoring 137.
Harmer bagged four for South Africa in Bangladesh’s first innings.
Before this series, Bangladesh played 12 Tests against South Africa but failed to win any of them.
However, the Tigers won the ODI series right before the ongoing Test series which was Bangladesh’s maiden ODI series win on the soil of South Africa.
The second Test of the series will be played from April 8. Bangladesh will miss the service of Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam in the second Test as both the Pacers are set to return home on April 5 due to injuries.
PM congratulates Tigers on historic ODI series win against Proteas
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday congratulated all players, coaches and the manager of the Bangladesh cricket team for their first series win against South Africa on their soil.
In the congratulatory message, she hoped that the Tigers would continue their all-out efforts to win the coming up Test series against the same side.
Today, Bangladesh clinched their first ODI series in South Africa with a nine-wicket win in the series decider at SuperSport Park.
READ: PM congratulates Tigresses for maiden victory in World Cup
The Tigers won the series 2-1 after bowling the Proteas out for 154 and reaching 156-1 in 26.3 overs.
Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal was 87 not out and fast bowler Taskin Ahmed put the team on course with his 5-35 to whittle out the South African batting lineup.
Tigers tumbled for 115 in 2nd T20 vs Afghanistan
Bangladesh tumbled for 115 for nine in 20 overs in the 2nd T20I against Afghanistan on Saturday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first, but the hosts failed to respond well.
Openers, Munim Shahriar and Mohammad Naim posted seven runs in the first wicket partnership. Munim, who got a chance in the national team for his ability to hit the ball cleanly, failed to prove his mettle in the first two chances.
Also read: Bangladesh bat first in Mushfiqur’s 100th T20I
Mushfiqur Rahim, who is playing his 100th T20I as only the second Bangladeshi cricketer after Mahmudullah Riyad, scored 30, the highest by any Bangladeshi batter in this match.
Mahmudullah Riyad, the Bangladesh captain, scored 21, the second-highest runs in this innings by a Bangladeshi batter.
Mohammad Naim and Liton Das were the other two batters to have scored a double-digit total— 13 each.
Afghanistan bowled superbly. Left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi continued to shine taking three wickets conceding 18 in four overs while right-arm pacer Azmatullah Omarzai has also bagged three wickets conceding 22 in four overs.
Also read: BAN vs AFG T20I Series 2022: Can Bangladesh Whitewash Afghanistan in Twenty20 Series?
Bangladesh won the first match by 61 runs at the same venue.
1st ODI: Imperious Afif, Mehidy guide Tigers to surprise victory vs Afghanistan
With six wickets down under the 50-run mark, Bangladesh successfully chased down a target of 216 against Afghanistan riding on an outstanding partnership of Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz on Wednesday in Chattogram.
With an imperious partnership of unbeaten 174, Afif and Mehidy guided Bangladesh to a 4-wicket victory in the first match of the three-match series— one of their finest victories in the format.
Afif and Mehidy set a record of the highest seventh-wicket stand for Bangladesh in ODIs. They surpassed the previous record of 127 by Imrul Kayes and Mohammad Saifuddin.
READ: Bangladesh restrict Afghanistan to 215 in 1st ODI
Along the way, Afif remained unbeaten for 93 off 115 with 11 fours and one six while Mehidy for 81 off 120 balls with 9 fours.
It was Afghan young pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi who put immense pressure on Bangladesh taking four wickets early. Bangladesh lost five wickets in just 28 runs, and four of those wickets were taken by Farooqi who was playing only the second match of his career.
The other two wickets that Bangladesh lost were taken by Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan— two of the strongest weapons of this Afghanistan setup.
When Afghan players were overjoyed with the prospect of a big victory, Afif and Mehidy paired up and put up a resistance that was never broken.
During the early overs of the partnership, both Afif and Mehidy were steady. They played the balls with extra care so that they wouldn't push the team into further trouble.
Afghanistan bowlers tried so many things to break the stand, but their efforts went in vain.
Earlier, the tourists have won the toss and opted to bat first. They failed to have a good start as the opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell to Mustafizur Rahman early for seven of 14 balls.
However, in the middle overs, Afghanistan batters were firm. Najibullah Zadran hit 67 before being dismissed late in the innings.
Rahmat Shah was the second-best batter for Afghanistan in the innings scoring 34.
READ: Tamim aims to play 'good cricket' in ODIs vs Afghanistan
Afghanistan scored 63, their best stand in the innings, in the fifth-wicket stand shared by Mohammad Nabi and Najibullah Zadran.
However, they failed to do well in the last 10 overs when they added only 47 runs losing the last five wickets, and eventually, they ended up on 215 all out in 49.1 overs.
For Bangladesh, left-arm pacer Mustafizur was the best bowler taking three wickets conceding 35 runs while two other pacers— Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam— bagged two wickets each along with Shakib Al Hasan. Mahmudullah Riyad bowled one over and took a wicket too.
In this match, Bangladesh fielded Yasir Ali Rabbi— the debutant from Chattogram. Before getting his ODI cap, Yasir played three Tests. He also played 77 List-A matches and scored 1878 runs with two centuries and 11 half-centuries. He, however, failed to justify his place in the first chance as he suffered a duck and put the team into trouble.
It was Bangladesh’s first ODI in eight months. The Tigers played their last ODI before this series in July 2021 in Zimbabwe.
The remaining matches of this series will take place on February 25 and 28 at the same venue.
Ashwell Prince laments Tigers' batting collapse in Christchurch
It was inevitable that the Kiwis would post a massive first-innings total after Tom Latham and Devon Conway added more than 200 runs in the second-wicket stand, and it happened. But Bangladesh's batting lineup failed to deliver Monday, on the second day of the Christchurch Test.
Replying to New Zealand’s first innings total of 521/6 declared, Bangladesh tumbled for only 126, with all of the top five batters failing to reach double figures.
A 60-run stand by Yasir Ali and Nurul Hasan Shohan rescued the Tigers from an even worse fate. Along the process, Yasir registered his maiden fifty in Tests while Shohan got 41.
Also reda: Top Five Memorable Individual Knocks of BPL History
“At tea time, we identified the pitch was quite good for batting. There was value for shots off the surface. The outfield was nice. If we could hang in a little bit, we could get a partnership going,” Bangladesh batting coach Ashwell Prince said at the end of the day’s play.
“The movement happened a bit quicker off the surface today. I was comfortable thinking some of the balls would go past the outside edge. It is normal for these conditions,” he added.
With 49 more overs to play in the day, New Zealand declared unexpectedly, and it seemed that the visitors were not prepared mentally to start batting at that point of the match. It was reflected in their performance when all of the top-five batters returned to the dressing room early.
“Of course, we are disappointed (about the lean show by the top five). It was a massive effort last week. We played 173 overs against a quality bowling attack. I think it is fair to say that we expected New Zealand to come back with a lot more urgency in this game. If you compare the two games, you can see that it is really difficult to fight your way back, even if you are the No 1 team,” Prince also said.
Also read: New Zealand take giant stride as Bangladesh suffered batting collapse
For New Zealand, Trent Boult was tremendous with the ball taking five wickets— his nine five-fors in Tests so far. Along the way, he completed 300 wickets in the format.
At the end of day two, Bangladesh are behind by 395 runs— a huge task they have ahead. It’s not clear if New Zealand would enforce a follow-on. It will only be known on the third day morning.