superkingdave
Hall of Fame Member
Barbados vs Chittagong
Many people expected Chittagong to struggle this season, especially in First Class cricket, where the batting looked weak and the bowling too reliant on home conditions. Thus the solid start to the season has thus come as a surprise to many. Prior to the tricky away trip to Barbados they had won one out of two One Day matches, the other a close loss, and won the first match in the longer format, albeit by default. Even so you would have got long odds against a Chittagong victory in the Caribbean.
Captain Indulkar, at 20 one of the youngest captains in WCC history, saw his bowlers restrict Barbados to 237 in the first innings, a very good effort alround, especially from the fielders. The loss of seven wickets to the spin of Fanning and Hasan was encouraging with Hasan's 4-50 the pick. Guneratne offered most resistance with an agressive 73 but apart from an uncharacterically dour innings from Pietersen, application seemed rare amongst the Barbados batsmen.
When it was Chittagong's turn to bat, the bowlers were made to suffer, the opening partnership between Hurley and the veteran Abedin cruised to 195 before Hurley was caught in front just one short of a century. The Old Man at the other end just carried on regardless though. At 40 years of age this is probably Abedin's swan song, and in this match he looked determined to leave his mark on WCC history, adding 95 with captain Indulkar and 145 with Walker, he kept going past his double century and, after receiving some explosive support from Kellar, completed an astounding triple century to leave his team firmly in command. The declaration came soon afterwards at 615-8 and a lead of 378.
Kellar followed his muscular innings with a devestating spell to remove the top four batsmen and leave no doubt as to the result. Walker capped a fine all round performance with 3-43 and Hasan picked up another 2 wickets as Barbados barely mustered any resistance in being bowled out for 177 and conceding defeat by an innings and 201 runs.
So Chittagong go on, knowing that the rest of the season will not be as easy as this and that if the level is dropped, they could be the ones on the receiving end of the next crushing defeat. If they can build on the start though, they could be there or thereabouts when the promotion places are decided. For Barbados, there may be some tough practise sessions in the week ahead, but i'm sure they will come back fighting, and Chittagong must be wary when they visit Bangladesh.
More than the result though, this match will be remembered as the day Abedin rolled back the years, and rewrote the record books.
Many people expected Chittagong to struggle this season, especially in First Class cricket, where the batting looked weak and the bowling too reliant on home conditions. Thus the solid start to the season has thus come as a surprise to many. Prior to the tricky away trip to Barbados they had won one out of two One Day matches, the other a close loss, and won the first match in the longer format, albeit by default. Even so you would have got long odds against a Chittagong victory in the Caribbean.
Captain Indulkar, at 20 one of the youngest captains in WCC history, saw his bowlers restrict Barbados to 237 in the first innings, a very good effort alround, especially from the fielders. The loss of seven wickets to the spin of Fanning and Hasan was encouraging with Hasan's 4-50 the pick. Guneratne offered most resistance with an agressive 73 but apart from an uncharacterically dour innings from Pietersen, application seemed rare amongst the Barbados batsmen.
When it was Chittagong's turn to bat, the bowlers were made to suffer, the opening partnership between Hurley and the veteran Abedin cruised to 195 before Hurley was caught in front just one short of a century. The Old Man at the other end just carried on regardless though. At 40 years of age this is probably Abedin's swan song, and in this match he looked determined to leave his mark on WCC history, adding 95 with captain Indulkar and 145 with Walker, he kept going past his double century and, after receiving some explosive support from Kellar, completed an astounding triple century to leave his team firmly in command. The declaration came soon afterwards at 615-8 and a lead of 378.
Kellar followed his muscular innings with a devestating spell to remove the top four batsmen and leave no doubt as to the result. Walker capped a fine all round performance with 3-43 and Hasan picked up another 2 wickets as Barbados barely mustered any resistance in being bowled out for 177 and conceding defeat by an innings and 201 runs.
So Chittagong go on, knowing that the rest of the season will not be as easy as this and that if the level is dropped, they could be the ones on the receiving end of the next crushing defeat. If they can build on the start though, they could be there or thereabouts when the promotion places are decided. For Barbados, there may be some tough practise sessions in the week ahead, but i'm sure they will come back fighting, and Chittagong must be wary when they visit Bangladesh.
More than the result though, this match will be remembered as the day Abedin rolled back the years, and rewrote the record books.