NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
GROUNDS
STATISTICS
GUEST COLUMNS
FORUM
SCHEDULE
ARCHIVES
SURFBOARD

Bangladesh shock the Scots

Bangladesh proved their worth as title-holders of the ICC Trophy by defending a mediocre total against Scotland in Edinburgh today.

The match was never going to affect the other teams in Group B, yet both sides involved had a point to prove.

There was no doubt that Scotland had impressed through the tournament with their limited yet disciplined performance against giant teams like Australia and Pakistan and managed to come out with their heads held high.

Bangladesh had on the other hand failed to deliver much through their first couple of games. So it looked almost certain that Scotland would wrap up the match with ease.

But the Bangladeshis had other ideas.

At 26/5, Bangladesh looked set to concede the match to Scotland. John Blain and Asim Butt were bowling well and had Ian Philip held on to a simple chance from Minhajul Abedin off Gavin Hamilton when the batsman had just three runs against his name, the Bangadeshi effort would have disappeared without a trace.

But Abedin and Naimur Rahman added 69 runs for the sixth wicket before Rahman was dismissed. Abedin, however, continued to do battle and took the score to 133-8 in the 41st over. Scotland yet again failed to apply the brakes effectively and Bangladesh eventually escaped to a moderate yet challenging score of 185.

Blain bowled a very tidy spell and was rewarded with four wickets. But the Scotsmen were very generous with the extras, bowling as many as 28 wides and giving away 44 extra runs overall.

When the Scottish began their reply, Hasibul Hussain trapped Patterson in front of his wickets with a full-length delivery when the innings was just two balls old. With Mike Smith snapped up behind the stumps and the experienced Philip finding the ball kiss his pad before the bat right in front of the stumps, Scotland were reeling at 8 for 3.

Captain George Salmond and Ian Stanger briefly restored the innings to health with a 29-run stand before another collapse set in. Hamilton held on for a while before the Scottish dream of winning the 'minnows World Cup final' came to an abrupt end.

Hamilton scored a fifty off 62 balls before he was dismissed in the most agonising fashion. Alex Davies straight-drove Manjurul Islam who managed to get a touch on the ball before it crashed into the stumps at the non-striker's end and dislodged the bails to leave Hamilton, who was backing up a long way, short by just about 3 inches.

At that stage, Scotland required 48 runs off the last 7.3 overs. (One over had been deducted from their quota for their slow over rate during the Bangladesh innings.) Manjurul Islam then took a great catch at mid-on to dismiss Davies and tilt the match firmly in Bangladesh's favour. The last two wickets were snapped up by Bangladesh off successive balls.

Gordon Greenidge will have something to cheer about from this World Cup after all!

Scoreboard