England swamp Bangladesh in Kenya

Prem Panicker

For the third straight day, we had a match of no particular moment. And it does raise a little thought or two. What takes the edge off the World Cup is the ICC's insistence on packing it with a whole lot of teams and, as a result, ensuring that quite a few games are merely formalities to be endured.

The ICC Trophy, by virtue of its knock-out format, is meant to be different, more hard-edged and competitive. Here again, though, the ICC seems intent on adding more teams, with the result that again, one sided games have been creeping in.

The argument advanced by the ICC would be that it is only by playing the big boys, that the minnows can learn. It is an argument I can't buy -- what, for instance, would Kenya have learnt from its defeat on the first day, or Bangladesh today? Just this -- that they are not ready for the big time, not yet.

If the ICC were really serious about improving standards (as it is, I suspect the ICC is only interested in increasing the number of matches and with it, the advertising and television revenues), it would pass an edict that each of the Test-playing nations should permit at least one ICC associate nation to field a team in its domestic competition. To illustrate, I would think that Kenya and Bangladesh would learn more by fielding teams in the Pura Milk Cup, or the Ranji Trophy, than by playing in a tournament of this standard.

I mean, can you imagine giving Indian football a pass to the World Cup, arguing that its standard will improve if it plays against Brazil and France and Italy and the rest?

The reason for that little digression is that the game itself offers little of interest to comment about -- and therefore, for the third straight day, I'll pass on the exhaustive review and just hit a couple of high spots.

The first such, is England's performance in the field, after losing the toss and having to field first. I don't know, maybe it is something to ask an international captain -- but does it happen that if a skipper is having a lean personal trot with the bat, that in turn translates into a defensiveness of approach in the field?

Nasser Hussain today certainly led me to think that might be true. Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick have of late struck up a fine partnership, they are on the top of their form and confidence, early morning dew coupled with 93 per cent humidity meant there was scope for swing and seam, and yet Hussain had a field of 2 slips only, for Bangladesh. That field to South Africa (England's next opponent), is understandable. But for Gough and Caddick bowling to Bangladesh?!

The result was frustration for both opening bowlers, as time and again they found the edge and the ball flew through the empty acreage behind the bat, down to third man for boundaries. The field setting was unabashedly defensive, and that orientation was inexplicable. Ironically, given that Hussain preferred to have fielders manning the deep rather than in catching positions, Bangladesh got close to half its runs behind the sticks on both sides of the wicket -- so the defensive setting didn't work too good, either.

The other point worth noting was Hussain's handling of his bowling resources. Given that his two opening bowlers were his best options, it was rather strange that he ran through their overs too quickly for comfort, but failed to use his backup bowlers such as Flintoff, who didn't bowl a single over, or Alleyne, who got to bowl one over at the slog phase. This is one area that will leave him vulnerable when he takes on South Africa -- the support act of Craig White, Mark Alleyne, Mark Ealham and Andy Flintoff may be very good in English conditions, but here, much of their effectiveness is reduced. Hussain thus would need to rotate them, squeeze in as many of their overs as possible judiciously, in order to save Gough and Caddick for short, attacking bursts.

While on England in the field, another disappointment was the fielding, which on the day was shambolic. And to me, surprising, for a team on a high. Given the nature of the upcoming contest, this is hopefully just a case of not having found their feet yet -- the bowling needs a much higher standard in the field, to give it teeth, than today's performance which saw three sitters, and as many half chances, go down.

As for the Bangladesh batting effort, the way they took advantage of the sub-par support bowling and fielding to post 232 was definitely impressive. Bangladesh's strength has always been batting, and they did very well today to put a fighting total on the board. The two players who impressed were Javed Omar, the opener who retired hurt on 14 and then came back to anchor the team to its total with a fine unbeaten 63, and Naimur Rehman the captain, who showed good skill and temperament in rattling off a rapid 46 before a needless heave did for him.

232 was a fighting total, but only if the bowlers could back up their batting. That didn't happen -- in fact, the reverse was true. Hasibul Hussain had a horrible first over, with five no balls or was it six, and one wide, peppering it, and from there on, the bowling just went from bad to worse. The trouble for Bangladesh was that after a start like that, even the spinners lost it -- instead of tossing it up and looking for turn and bounce (ironically, the only ball that was really flighted and given a chance to turn, had Nasser Hussain, then 95 and looking for his first ever Test hundred, mistime an attempted onside push and give a tame return catch) the two left-arm spinners and the off spinner all tried to save runs by bowling flat and fast, and took a pounding as a result.

Marcus Trescothick, England's new-found wonderboy, was the focus of attention, but didn't spend enough time out there to give us an accurate idea of his skills, falling to a tame edge off a seaming ball before he had really settled.

Stewart of late has been in very good form, and he carried that form into today's game. Hussain, on the other hand, has been having a patch of the horrids -- and 'horrid' was a pretty fair description for how he batted until Naimur Rehman's off spin came along. Hussain is a batsman who plays a lot of his shots inside out, and that worked just right against Rehman, with the England captain teeing off and playing some golf-style shots that threatened to give Tiger Woods a bit of a complex.

Given the pedestrian nature of the bowling, England had to win it in a canter, and that is what they did. No alarms, no excursions, nothing worthy of special mention.

Hopefully, that is the last of the mismatches, and the real business of intense, hard-edged competition begins when India and Australia square off on Saturday. Then again, there is a body of opinion that holds that this is another mismatch. We'll know, soon enough.

Meanwhile, been having quite a few emails asking how come we don't give a scoreboard, along with our report. We do. The most exhaustive kind there is, one that gives you all the regular data, plus a lot of other stuff like the manhattan, team charts, partnership graphs, bowling figures for individual bowlers, et al. As on the link below:

England versus Bangladesh -- The Full Scoreboard and Graphic Analysis

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