Crucket

Beaten in every match and still being talked up. Forgive me for being ungracious in victory, but I find it hard to give Bangladesh much credit for their performance in the test match. 122 runs is a heavy loss, and that against the 6th ranked team. They also lost 20 wickets to New Zealand’s 12. A highest partnership of 145 to NZ’s 339.

I think it is pretty clear to anyone watching what went wrong for Bangladesh. The truth is, the batsmen didn’t look that bad. They just played the wrong game. They were too aggressive.

A quick calculation finds that Bangladesh scored 468 of their 690 runs in boundaries. About 2/3 of their runs. Whereas New Zealand scored 384 of their 811 in boundaries, less that half. If their 468 runs in boundaries had been the same proportion of their total as NZ’s 384 was, then their total would have been 988 and they might have won, well drawn at least.

They’ve got to calm down a bit. Learn to walk before they run and all that.

The Dead Weather:

There’s only one thing to reasonably expect in a series against Bangladesh, a whitewash. Anything else is an upset – and that would be embarrassing. So it makes a lot of sense to talk up Bangladesh’s prospects before the first game of the tour, on the off-chance they do manage to fluke a win.

However, after last Friday’s 146-run caning, following up on the 20-20 mauling, I find it hard to see how you can continue to suggest that Bangladesh are asking questions. If they’re posing any questions, they are “Who was talking them up before the series and what were they thinking?” and “When does Australia arrive?”

Vampire Weekend:

There should be a name for the type of 10 wickets to none downtrou where you outscore your opponent at a rate of 2 to 1.

A browntrou?

The xx