Was Bangladesh’s Win The Biggest Ever Ups

This must certainly rank as the biggest upset in the more than 33 years history of ODI cricket and one of the most astonishing results in the entire history of international cricket. The aura of invincibility around the Aussies was shattered by the side least expected to do so. The arrogant, the over-confident, the mighty and the world champions, Australia were brought down to earth by Bangladesh, the lowest ranked team playing international cricket today. 

The win may just be a flash-in-pan and a slight blip on the almost impeccable Australian record in the recent years, but this unbelievable win should certainly rank as the finest hour in the history of Bangladesh since its independence from Pakistan in 1971. Who knows that this triumph may just act as a tonic for Bangladesh and help it to reverse its fledgling fortunes in international cricket. Those critics of the sport, who advocated vociferously for suspension of Bangladesh’s Test status, will be compelled to bite the dust, at least momentarily.

The history of cricket in general and ODI cricket in particular is packed with numerous unexpected and shocking results where the powerfuls were trounced by the recognized minnows. In the 1983 World Cup new entrant Zimbabwe got the better of Australia by 13 runs. Again in the 1996 edition played in the sub-continent, West Indies were subdued by another rank outsider Kenya by 73 runs and then in the 1999 World Cup in England, it was again Bangladesh which had outplayed Pakistan by 62 runs. However all these results, though completely bewildering and against the run of play, stand no comparison to what one witnessed in Cardiff.

In 1983, Aussies were not a force to reckon with and infact were passing through a transition phase while by 1996 with almost all the big guns retired and West Indies unable to find suitable replacements for them, its tag of invincibility had long disappeared. In the 1999 World Cup, Pakistan under Wasim Akram had played impressive cricket till that unlikely result, but Pakistan’s unpredictability in world cricket is also well-documented. Pakistan cricketers have this uncanny tendency to blow hot and cold on a regular basis and the only thing consistent about them is their inconsistency.

In comparison today Australia is the No. 1 ranked team and has consistently played breathtaking cricket in every region of the world. The high standards of performance achieved by the Australians are considered the barometer by other international teams, who judge the improvement in their own game by the manner in which they fare against the Aussies. Australia is renowned for its meticulous planning, working on oppositions’ game to the painstaking details and having the players to execute those strategies to perfection. This has been the recipe of Australia’s sustained high calibre performance, over the years. On the other hand, Bangladeshis have had a fairly embarrassing baptism in international cricket and have been labelled as the whipping boys of world cricket. Barring Zimbabwe, which in its last series against Bangladesh was devoid of 15 key players, the later has been trounced by all and sundry. Their Test matches rarely enter the fourth day and their performance has gone downhill even in ODIs, in which they were considered better performers than in the longer and the most testing version of the game.

It was thus termed a no-match even before the game commenced at Cardiff. Some complacency also seemed to have crept in the normally ruthless Aussie outfit which may have been due to the relative mismatched strength of the two teams on paper. Perhaps that was the reason why Ricky Ponting completely disregarded the history of this ground where the side batting second had won all the last four games; now that tally has increased to five. After winning the toss, he elected to bat first, a decision that also pleased his counterpart Habibul Bashar. The casual manner in which the Australians progressed their innings was indicative that they were in no mood of heroics and just wanted to post a reasonable enough total to achieve a comfortable triumph over Bangladesh. Damien Martyn and Micheal Clarke, after they had done the repair work, never really lit the ground on fire although almost 100 runs were scored in the last 10 overs but one thought that the foot was put on the accelerator almost 5 overs too late.

Not to demean Mohammad Ashraful’s tremendous century, only the second score in three figures by a Bangladesh batsmen in ODIs, Australian bowlers never really bowled with the fire and venom, normally associated with them. Australia went into the match with a bowler short and Simon Katich was included in the side to bat at the No. 7 position, the thinking perhaps was that their four main bowlers including spinner Brad Hogg would do the job, a gamble that cost Australia the match. Even in the last few overs with Bangladesh batsmen on the roll, Australian pace attack falsely assumed that the inexperience of their opponents at this level would get the better of them and in panic they will throw the game away. The last over slow ball bowled by Gillespie was indicative that Australian still could not visualise itself losing the game and thought that batsmen will gift their wickets in their rush towards victory. On the contrary, Aftab Ahmed, with victory in sight and his heart as big it can get, perfectly read the delivery and smashed it for a huge six to tie the scores.

To the credit of Bangladesh players, it must be said that they were never overawed by the stature of their opponents. From the moment they picked the scalps of Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting in a jiffy, Bangladesh bowlers made sure they firmly stayed in the match. Even when Martyn and Clarke were doing the recovery job after the loss of three quick wickets, the bowlers especially pacer Mashrafe Mortaza and spinner Mohammad Rafique never allowed the Aussies to break free in their now customary fashion. Tapash Baisya, playing his first game of the tournament, picked up three crucial wickets to halt Australia’s progress.

Though the target was sizeable and Bangladesh lost early wickets, Ashraful along with his skipper Habibul Bashar batted with remarkable composure to bring their team within a whisker of victory. Though Asharful needlessly threw away his wicket, an atrocious shot on the very next ball he faced after completing his century and which could have cost Bangladesh the chance of creating history, the pair of Aftab and Rafique batted responsibly to reach the victory target of 250 runs.  

Despite the established fact that all teams start equal before commencement of a tournament, the critics had described the triangular series in England as a two-way race between the Australians and the Englishmen with Bangladesh merely expected to fill-in as the third team in the competition. Bangladesh’s amazing win by 5 wickets with four balls to spare over Australia has thrown the tournament wide open. The odds of an Australia-England final must still be high but with an unexpected result coming so early in the tournament, anything is now a possibility.

Cricket World - Ayaz Farooqi