Bangladesh Story

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Bangladesh today unveiled the appointment of Chris Miller as the team's new coach, the authorities are hoping that Miller will be able to continue the teams steady improvement shown over the last few years. In a press conference Mr Miller stated that he was very excited to have the opportunity to coach a side with this amount of potential and he stated that he would have no hesitation in dropping players who didn't show any fight. He will not have an easy introduction to the international arena with his first series in charge will be in Australia in August followed by a tour to South Africa and the final series of the year is a home series against Sri Lanka and finally in the new year they face a clash against Zimbabwe. Each of these series involves 2 test matches and 3 One Day Internationals. The challenge facing Mr Miller is highlighted by the respective test and ODI ratings of 10th and 9th. The choices of centrally contracted players and his first team will be announced ahead of the series against the Australians.

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Central Contracts and Australia Squad announced

The twenty centrally contracted players are 1. Mehrab Hossain 2. Shahriar Nafees 3. Tamim Iqbal 4. Rajin Saleh 5.Mohammad Ashraful 6. Raquibul Hasan 7. Naeem Islam 8. Mushfiqur Rahim 9. Dhiman Ghosh 10. Farhad Reza 11. Shakib Al-Hasan 12. Shahadat Hossain 13. Mashrafe Mortaza 14. Syed Rasel 15. Abdur Razzak 16. Sajidul Islam 17. Nazmul Hossain 18. Suhrawadi Shuvo 19. Dolar Mahmud 20. Arafat Sunny This selection shows that the new coach is putting his faith in the young Bangladeshi players.
The coach raised a few eyebrows in his selection of the touring squad with Rajin Saleh, Mehrab Hossain and Syed Rasel left at home with the Injured Nazmul Hossain, coming into the 18 man squad are Junaid Siddique and Mahmudullah. Though no-one is giving the Bangladeshi side a hope in the test series they will hope to cause a major upset in the two tests. Their first game is against Victoria in a three day game before the start of the two test series.

[habib]

Bangalies are tigers and I hope it will be a great story
I m sure BAN will upset if not in year 2009 then surely will in 2010.
Good luck

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Squad for the Tour game against Victoria Announced

Bangladesh are looking to find the best possible team for the two test series giving many of the young players a chance the most noticeable absentee is Mohammad Ashraful who is recovering from a broken finger:
1. Tamim Iqbal
2. Junaid Siddique
3. Shahriar Nafees
4. Raquibul Hasan
5. Naeem Islam
6. Shakib Al-Hasan (capt)
7. Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt)
8. Arafat Sunny
9. Sajidul Islam
10. Dolar Mahmud
11. Shahadat Hossain
It would seem that Dolar Mahmud and Sajidul Islam are fighting it out for the final fast bowling slot and Naeem Islam and Raquibul Hossain are looking to take the slot occupied by Ashraful who is an uncertainty for the first test starting on the 15th of August

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Victoria vs Bangladesh 1st day

On a placid looking pitch under beautiful clear skies Bangladesh lost the toss and were forced to bowl first on a flat looking pitch. The Bangladeshi fast bowlers started brightly beating the Victorian openers a few times but were unable to take any early wickets, and after weathering the early movement Rob Quiney began to hit boundaries all to quickly before Dolar mahmud trapped him LBW with an inswinger but the openers had set the platform with a partnership of 69. The introduction of the Bangladeshi spinners brought some control to proceedings but soon the two new batsmen were milking them well and then it seemed the reintroduction of Shahadat had allowed Nick Jewell to start scoring boundaries but Sajidul Islam found just enough movement to take an edge which was well taken by Rahim ending the partnership of 90. But Hussey continued to score quickly off the fast bowlers reaching his hundred off 176 balls. The spinners finally got reward for some accurate bowling with Arafat Sunny getting Cameron White for 37. With the second new ball comes a flurry of boundaries as Brad Hodge joins David Hussey but persistence pays of for Sajidul Islam who removes him for a quickfire 25 but that wicket didn't stem the tide with McDonald scoring 26 off 22 balls, but he was caught on the boundary by Nafees off Sajidul Islam who was the pick of the Bangladeshi Bowlers on the first day taking 3-82. Hussey brought up his 150 with 3 boundaries off Dolar Mahmud bowling around the wicket and he finished the day unbeaten on 192 with Bangladesh taking only 1 more wicket and Victoria finished the day on 420-6

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Victoria vs Bangladesh 2nd day

Victoria began day 2 just as they had finished yesterday with Hussey bringing up his 200 off just 289 balls and Wade supported him well scoring 34. Soon after this wicket Hussey was removed for 213 caught superbly by Mushfiqur Rahim off Arafat Sunny then Dolar Mahmud helped to finish off the tail quickly and finished with 4-116
Victoria-488 all out
David Hussey-213 Nick Jewell-64
Dolar Mahmud 4-116 Arafat Sunny 3-89

Victoria could hardly have started better with Tamim Iqbal caught at slip in the second over off McDonald who also bowled Siddique for 11 and had Raquibul Hasan caught at slip in the same over for 0 Bangladesh going into lunch at 40 for 3. After lunch Peter Siddle came in hard at the Bangladeshi's reducing them to 47 for 5 with an aggressive spell and he managed to bring the ball back into the right handers. The Victorian bowlers seemed able to consistantly move the ball both in the air and off the pitch, and only Mushfiqur Rahim seemed able to resist the bowlers scoring 61 before getting caught at silly point off Bryce McGainArafat Sunny who made 39 before being bowled by McDonald began the lower order fightback and the last wicket partnership of 41 with Sajidul Islam making 37 and Shahadat Hossain making 30 took Bangladesh to 239 all out.
Bangladesh 239 all out
Mushfiqur Rahim-61 Arafat Sunny-39
Andrew McDonald 5-67 Peter Siddle 3-78

Following on the Bangladeshi Batsmen had 50 awkward minutes to try and negotiate and the openers started aggressively but Siddique was LBW for 5 by Harwood and then Nafees was bowled by McDonald but Iqbal and Raquibul Hasan lasted till the end of the day Bangladesh finishing with 59-2 with Tamim having scored 38no

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Victoria vs Bangladesh 3rd day

Bangladesh began the day needing 190 just to make Victoria bat again and Tamim and Raquibul began the day in a very aggressive manner taking Bangladesh pat 100 within the first hour. These two put on a partnership of 109 before Iqbal edged a Bryce McGain googly. But Naeem Islam and Hasan showed good mental strength to avoid a collapse and they made a good partnership of 53 till Islam was out LBW off McDonald. Siddle the bowled aggressively from around the wicket to Shakib getting him to edge behind and troubled the other two batsmen to no reward. Raquibul fell for 91 being bowled by McGainof a ball that didnt spin, this brought Sunny and Rahim back together but Mcgain made sure there was no repeat partnership and had Rahim caught and bowled and he also had Sajidul Islam out caught by Wade but Sunny and Mahmud fought well putting on 97 before Siddle got Mahmud LBW 18 overs into the new ball, Shahadat Hossain took the attack to the Victoria bowlers and mad a good 43 and secured the draw for Bangladesh only one over was bowlable in the Victorian second innings and it gave 2 runs

Bangladesh-407all out
Raquibul Hasan-91 Tamim Iqbal-78
Bryce McGain 4-78 Shane Harwood 2-30

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Preview Aus vs Ban 1st test

Mohammad Ashraful has been declared fit for the first test against Australia and Mashrafe Mortaza will start instead of Dolar Mahmud with Arafat Sunny and Raquibul Hasan making there debuets after both performed reasonably against Victoria but Shahadat Hossain will be under pressure after a below par performance against the Bushrangers
Bangladesh side:
1.Tamim Iqbal
2.Shahriar Nafees
3.Raquibul Hasan
4.Mohammad Ashraful
5.Naeem Islam
6.Shakib Al-Hasan (capt)
7.Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt)
8.Arafat Sunny
9.Mashrafe Mortaza
10.Sajidul Islam
11.Shahadat Hossain

The lineup for Austrailia is:
1.Phil Jacques
2.Matthew hayden
3.Ricky Ponting
4.Michael Hussey
5.Michael Clarke
6.Andrew Symonds
7.Mitchell Johnson
8.Brad Haddin
9.Brett Lee
10.Stuart Clark
11.Shaun Tait
The Pitch seems to be very flat with little of no movement available for the bowlers.

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Australia vs Bangladesh 1st Test day 1

Bangladesh lost the toss and were forced to field, but despite the lack of movement the bowlers started brightly and Hayden was bowled by Shahadat Hossain for 17 and the bowlers continued well with Jacques falling for 44 to Arafat Sunny. The spinners then gave Bangladesh a level of control as the fiirst session ended honors even, but the second session started brightly with Shakib removing Hussey for 10 and Ponting holing out of Arafat Sunny for 30. Symonds came in and looked to get after the spinners and hit a few boundaries and Clarke took his lead both batsmen sweeping them well, with Australia in need of a partnership these twos stood up and looked like going to get a big one untill symonds was run out giving Bangladesh the impetus yet again. Then Sajidul Islam removed Johnson for 12 just getting one to swing away and take the edge through to Rahim. Clarke continued to bat superbly bringing up his 50 off 99 balls and Haddin came in and took the attack to Bangladesh and with Clarke took Australia through to the new ball Clarke then fell 8 runs short of what would have been a well deserved hundred but Haddin continued and reached 50 marshalling Australia through to 300 and Australia finished the day 326 for 8

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Australia vs Bangladesh 1st Test day 2

Australia started day 2 well Haddin playing beautifully till he edged Mortaza to second slip for 93 then Sunny finished the innings off having Tait LBW but Australia fought back well to post what seems a par a par score. Iqbal as he has done on this tour began aggressively hitting Tait for 6 in the 4th over and the openers saw them to luch with the score at 41 for 0. Australia came back after lunch with Lee getting Nafees LBW to bring in the Debutant Hasan at what seemed a pivotal point in the game, he started nervously but with iqbal still scoring well he was able to take the time to settle and the game seemed to be swinging towards Bangladesh as Iqbal brought his 50 up off only 61 balls before he fell to Lee for 64. Ashraful came in at 4 and looked to be batting well but fell for 18 with Naeem Islam coming in at 5 and started slowly but looked solid as he and Hasan took Bangladesh towards the end of the day but Islam nicked Clark to 1st slip with 3/4 of an hour left in the day. Hasan finished the day unbeaten on 98 and the captain Shakib had 7

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Australia vs Bangladesh 1st Test day 3

Bangladesh began the day 146 behind Australia and desperatley needed to start well, Hasan brought his 100 up off 169 balls but Australia managed to keep the scoring down early and the Australians got the breakthrough they needed with Tait getting one to swing back and trap Hasan in front for 116. Johnson then hit Rahim and suddenly the momentum had shifted back to Australia and Rahim shaken by the blow was bowled by Clark for 3, Shakib broke his shackles hitting Johnson for three boundaries in an over and took Bangladesh to within 100 of Australia's total and Bangladesh were hoping there lower order could bat well again to bring them up and above the Australian total and they started well Shakib continued to bring up his 50 and Arafat Sunny showed good technique in his 24 before he was bowled by Johnson but the partnership of 73 had taken Bangladesh to 338 and they were only 33 behind now, but Johnson who had been bowling well removed Mortaza after 2 balls and Australia were looking to wrap up the innings quickly. After lunch Johnson removed Islam for 8 Clark Bowled Hossain for 15 but Bangladesh finished on 382 11 ahead of Australia and Shakib was unbeaten on 83.
Australia had a tricky period to face before tea and were going well but in the last over before lunch Sajidul bowled Hayden for 16. Bangladesh came out after lunch and beat the batsmen repeatedly without reward, but Ponting and Jacques fought through that period well and had put on 92 when Jacques was caught behind for 61 off Mortaza, who also accounted for ponting one over later for 50 and Australia finished the day on 136 for 3.

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Australia vs Bangladesh 1st Test day 4

Australia looked to counter attack on day 4 with Clarke and Hussey putting on a 50 partnership in under an hour with Clarke scoring at a strike rate of 83 in that partnership, but he couldn't push on as Australia would have wanted and fell for 56 off 64 balls holing out off Shahadat. But an under pressure Symonds whose batting has been poor recently took Australia to lunch without the loss of another wicket, but Arafat Sunny who has been very impressive on debut got on to turn a bit and Symonds was LBW for 26 he then remove Haddin with a well flighted delivery for his third wicket of the innings. Johnson decided to attack the bowlers once the new ball was taken and went onto his half century he was well supported by Lee who made 51 before Johnson was out for 62 but Sunny and hossain wrapped up the tail with Sunny taking 5-75
Bangladesh had 1 hour to play out and needed 356 to win the two openers set about their task well reaching 35 before Iqbal edged Tait to slip but Hasan and Nafees fought through to the close finishing 302 runs behind on 54-1

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Australia vs Bangladesh 1st Test day 5

The day began with both results still possible and for the first time the clouds hung over the ground making Bangladesh's task that bit harder. The day started slowly but Johnson soon had Raquibul out caught behind for 14 and then Lee had Nafees LBW for 30 putting Australia on top and Lee cemented the position by getting Naeem Islam who had looked to attack, for Bangladesh to win now they need Ashraful to make a large score. He started well scoring quickly but he has always had problems with his concentration but he and the captain Shakib saw off the spell from Brett Lee, but Tait bowled Shakib to all but seal the victory for Australia. Ashraful unperturbed by what was happening around him moving onto 50 off only 53 balls. Symonds only a part time spinner then came on and got rid of Rahim for 13, Clark got Sunny for 1 and Bangladesh went into lunch on 178 for 7. Mortaza and Ashraful posted a 50 partnership but Mortaza fell for 30 with Brett Lee taking his third wicket Symonds then came back to remove Sajidul Islam for 11 and Bangladesh were down and all but out and Clark sealed it removing Shahadat for 5

So after a spirited fight from Bangladesh Australia cam out victorious with Clarke getting the Man of the Match award for his 2 half centuries which brought Australia back on top of the game on both occasions.