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Loading ...Fantastic news!!! Just got home from work logged on and read on with delight. I wonder if fingers are being directed at certain players? Maybe to early.
Bangladesh (BANGLADESH) beat Australia (AUSTRALIA!)
By Will 5 years ago, mid-June Add your comment below
Never, ever, did I think I’d be writing those words. Bangladesh have beaten Australia. Australia have lost to Bangladesh. Bangladesh have outplayed Australia. Australia have etc etc. 2 days ago, I wrote “God knows what Australia will do to them…How did they beat Worcestershire?!” Somehow they went ten times better than Worcester by beating the Aussies.
What a day to remember, and what an honour to have watched it. This is one-day Cricket – and this is Cricket itself – so strange things do happen; but not this strange, not this often. This is one of the best wins, nevermind upsets, I’ve witnessed; the best team in the world (and they are) have been beaten by the worst team in the world (and they are). With 4 balls to spare. Worryingly, Australia have just about 14 and a half hours until they play a resurgent English side in their backyard – a backyard teeming with a media ready to pounce on their losses. Ponting’s top will have already been blown half way into The Channel by now – what a fun game this is!
So what the hell happened? Australia were/are still remarkably unprepared and complacent – that’s what. McGrath – Glenn McGrath – looked nonpenetrative and not particularly fit. Jason Gillespie was marginally better, but really lacked spice and venom – his two most-relied-upon features of his bowling. And the entire unit looked bored, lazy, disinterested and expected “someone else” to win the game for them. Well they got that much right – Bangladesh won it.
After the 20/20 loss – a reasonable dent to Aussie pride in itself – they would have put it down to rustiness and complacency. After Somerset’s loss, Ponting was said to be angry and embarrassed – understandably, despite the county having two quality batsmen in Graeme Smith and Sanath Jayasuria. But now? What can be said? They have let themselves down woefully, and genuinely look a shadow of the team they have been, could be and ought to be. Bangladesh outplayed them in their fielding, bowling and batting – BANGLADESH!
So, on to the Bangers’ day to remember. It all began in the first over, ball number two, when Gilchrist was given out LB – a little unluckily, perhaps. Just the start any international side needs – dismissing arguably one the greatest ODI players of all time for nought. “Minor setback,” so the Australians would have thought: but the innings never recovered, or got going. They fiddled around in the dull middle overs taking quick singles, the odd two – but no boundaries. Katich – highly rated outside these shores – played pretty well, but the soon-to-be-disciplined-and-we-don’t-know-why Andrew Symonds was sorely missed in those middling overs. Australia, who – don’t forget – chose to bat (wrongly) had only made 249-5. Still miles more than they needed. Or…was it?
Michael Holding, on Sky, remarked twice on the lack of “chirping” or chatter by the Aussies – and it was worth noting. There really was no energy or commitment – or at least a distinct lack of what we are accustomed to seeing from Australia cricket sides. Christ – they invented body language on a cricket-field.
The top 3 Bangladeshis all made reasonable starts, and all coped with the threat of McGrath and Gillespie; but at 72-3, familiar frailities were being exposed, until man of the hour Mohammad Ashraful bounced to the wicket. He and his skipper, Habibul Bashar, put on a brilliant and measured 130 for the fourth wicket and there were genuine thoughts that Bangladesh could win it. By the time Bashar was run out, going for an unlikely 2nd, people were starting to realise Australia (despite this wicket) were in some strife. Betting sites must have been over-loaded – and I admit, I stuck a tenner on at £2.10 
(Not as good as the bloke on Cricinfo’s IRC who put had £2 at 150/1 though!)
It ebbed and flowed, as befits a game of this stature, until 7 were needed from the final over – to be bowled by Jason Gillespie. And, extraordinarily, Aftab Ahmed smashed Gillespie’s first ball over mid-wicket for six – only the second in the match to all but seal the win. They won with a scampered, desperate, excitable single the next ball – and Ponting didn’t know where to look. For the previous 7 overs, or thereabouts, he had been having conversations with his bowlers almost every ball. Unheard of – genuinely unheard of. Chris Cairns’ comments last year that his “granny could captain” the Australia team were simply not dismissed – everyone agreed with him. For once, we saw this giant of the game humbled, panicking and clearly a little embarrassed by his team’s performance. For years, we have seen them act machine-like (McGrath is often referred to as being “metronomic”) – a slick, professional well oiled machine had been reduced to a side not dissimilar to the English in the 90s: sloppy, confusingly-below-par and gutted.
Where does this leave them now? Well, Ponting admitted the panic-button was not far off being pushed – and Darren Lehmann admitted the button would already have been pressed, somewhere in the middle of Bangladesh’s innings. Most other sides wouldn’t receive this amount of coverage of 3 defeats: but Australia aren’t “most other sides,” they are one of the greatest teams in sport who today were humbled by the worst. David really did conquer Goliath, and 150 million Bangladeshis and one Englishman will never forget it.
Tags: allah, australia, bangladesh, glenn-mcgrath, Habibul-Bashar, incredible, jason-gillespie, Mohammad-Ashraful, ODI, ricky-ponting |
26 Responses to “Bangladesh (BANGLADESH) beat Australia (AUSTRALIA!)”
June 18th, 2005 at 9.01 pm
June 18th, 2005 at 9.15 pm
I’m putting the highlights onto DVD tonight if you (or anyone else) wants a copy.
June 18th, 2005 at 9.19 pm
The Mighty Vanquished
The Bangladeshis will forever cherish June 18, 2005. They accomplished what was considered impossible a week before: they defeated Australia
June 18th, 2005 at 9.25 pm
After the Australian score of 9/2, the commentators were arguing why Bangladesh captain was not being a bit agressive in setting field. He was content with giving @4 runs per over. I was a bit surprised when after 35 overs Australia was going at that pace and boundary was not being scored for mor than 12 overs. I think to the inexperience of Bangladesh bowlers (specially Nazmul) Australia got 20 odd runs more. Sadly I missed most of Bangladesh’s batting. I saw a glimpse of Ashraful thrashing Mcgrath towards the fence (you don’t see that often). Then I thought probably he is going for the hara-kiri soon. The rest is history. I think Aftab & Rafique played brlliantly at the fag end. Remind you Bangladesh has lost many close matches. They just did not have the nerve shown today.
I am also wondering what has happened to Australia? Bangladeshi batsmen are not comfortable playing the bodyline bouncers. In his last spell Mcgrath could find it in just the last two balls without any effect. Why were Australia overcautious throughout the match?
June 18th, 2005 at 10.50 pm
Will
You can’t see it but I have my hand raised for the DVD…!!!
June 18th, 2005 at 11.37 pm
Gotcha Robert. I’ll email everyone tomorrow about the DVD – and I’ll reply to your comment, Rezwan, tomorrow.
June 18th, 2005 at 11.46 pm
Unbelievable. As a proud Australian, I must say I’m rather shocked at this loss. These sub-par Australian performances can’t go on for too much longer … can they? They’ve got to start winning again … eventually … somehow.
June 19th, 2005 at 4.34 am
Hear! Hear! an aussie thinks ” They’ve got to start winning again … eventually … somehow” about their team! Wow! are blessed to see this day or what!
June 19th, 2005 at 8.03 am
mind numbing stuff.
(at least you have a hundred in you earlier wager, Will, though I still won’t expect another one…!)
June 19th, 2005 at 10.24 am
AKR – thanks for that yeah! I read your blog and piece – I can’t beleive I thought they’d manage 5 hundreds (although, they did beat Worcester as well – so maybe someone got a hundred there?)
Darryl – I can’t imagine what your fellow Aussies are making of this. Today’s match is impossibly exciting and well poised – can Australia bounce back?
June 19th, 2005 at 12.26 pm
anon – our reputation isn’t that bad, is it? There are a lot of smart cricket fans here … perhaps it’s a bit like England, where I’m sure English fans aren’t all like those tabloid newspapers (excessive praise when England win, and merciless criticism when they lose).
Will – people over here are shocked, but generally expect the side to recover their previous good form again someday soon.
June 19th, 2005 at 12.35 pm
Darryl, I’m sure that’s right. Hussey and Clarke are steadying a very wobbly ship – but England really did some serious damage early on. Fascinating game, and a long way to go.
June 19th, 2005 at 1.30 pm
WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111
Please can i have a copy of the Bangladesh vs Australia Highlights DVD!!!
June 19th, 2005 at 1.31 pm
Its mitu again, my e-mail is rahman_mitu@yahoo.co.uk
thanks will
June 19th, 2005 at 1.36 pm
Mitu, I’ll be emailing those who’ve asked for a copy later today. Need to sort out the technical side of it…
June 19th, 2005 at 3.46 pm
darryl, yeah its not that bad….but even this has been so rare a sight that you cant blame the others for enjoying this moment 
. I am sure the aussies will come back hard atleast in the tests if not the ODIs. It will be interesting to see the next bangladesh australia match. The attitudes on display will certainly be different atleast from the aussies .As i type this, mcgrath has taken 2 wickets…so … we are not in a different world altogether…
June 21st, 2005 at 2.52 pm
HI WILL,
I AM A BANGLADESHI, AND I WILL LOVE TO HAVE THIS DVD! PLEASE CAN YOU EMAIL ME DETAILS OF WHAT I NEED TO DO, TO GET HOLD OF IT. (ALSO, WHAT IS THE DURATION/LENGTH OF THE HIGLIGHTS?)
THANKS
REZA-UL-KARIM
(rkm786@hotmail.com)
June 23rd, 2005 at 8.30 am
Please I need a copy……………….Here is my e-mail address : aahsan_16@yahoo.com ………………I am Bangladeshi and I have not seen the game because of the TV prob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!………….Also if anyone have a website that shows cricket live please leave it to us………………Also the website views live ESPN and STAR SPORTS
June 23rd, 2005 at 10.07 am
Folks,
You can also download the highlights of the match from here.
Click this link (255MB wmv file).
http://www.ualberta.ca/%7Ebsaua/bangladesh_match.wmv
Courtesy: Bangladeshi students association at the University of Alberta.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11.38 pm
will, thanks a bunch for agreeing to send all of us a copy of the DVD. i can’t wait. do you have any idea when the DVDS will be ready?
thanks
June 29th, 2005 at 8.32 pm
hi will
do you have any idea when the dvd will be ready
June 29th, 2005 at 8.56 pm
Hi Mitu. Please see this notice here
August 4th, 2005 at 3.59 am
Well, I am now writing on August 4th, almost 2 weeks after Australia have crushed England by 300+ runs. Australia have once again returned to the dominant form that has seen them conquer every team in the last decade. How the tide does turn!! Nevertheless, Bangladesh are still to be congratulated on their performance which will be one to remember for a long time.
February 5th, 2006 at 12.11 am
hi will i was wondering if i could have a copy of the dvd. thanx alot and please reply
February 5th, 2006 at 12.13 am
also my email address is hamza_mujtaba@hotmail.co.uk
December 31st, 2008 at 7.57 am
Poor australia….they deserved it by taking bangladesh too lightly…….They shud get some more thrashing
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