Openers solid on rain-affected day
On a rainy day on a sluggish pitch after a delayed start, Bangladesh reached a comfortable 42 for 0 before rains returned to terminate the proceedings
The Bulletin by Sriram Veera
09-Jul-2009
On a rainy day on a sluggish pitch after a delayed start, Bangladesh reached a comfortable 42 without loss against a second-string West Indies attack before the rain returned to end the proceedings.
Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes, the left-handed openers, carefully negotiated a pretty good opening spell from Tino Best and the aggressive Kemar Roach as they eased themselves in.
Tamim had a rush of blood in the first over when he slashed a full delivery over second slip but that was the only error from him as he put his head down and started to play the ball on its merit. Kayes was tested by a few bouncers from Roach and Best before he started to find his timing. He got off the mark on the 11th ball he faced before he unfurled couple of square-driven boundaries to get going. His best shot, and the shot of the morning, came against Roach when he stepped forward to square drive aerially over point.
For their part, the makeshift attack began well, with Best and Roach managing to squeeze some bounce out of this slow track. The pitch didn't offer any help to the seamers but they bent their back, hit the right areas and used the bouncers intelligently to test the batsmen.
However, once they were taken off the attack - with the medium-pacers Darren Sammy and Dave Bernard in operation - started to look pedestrian. The pitch also appeared benign when rain intervened again to force an early tea.
Once the game resumed Sammy started to used the moisture-laden track to seam the ball around and pose couple of uncomfortable moments to the batsmen before a torrential downpour prevented the game from continuing further on day one.
Sriram Veera is a staff writer at Cricinfo