Not a lot riding on this one. New Zealand should be safe and sound as group winners (are they already because I’m not sure what the first tie-break is), while Bangladesh are going to finish 4th and trek off to Melbourne.
Any comments for this one, please carry on below…
Being Outside Cricket 
It seems quite likely that Bangladesh is going to finish 4th. They either need to win this game, or tie it (N/R) and hope the Aussies lose to avoid that. Can’t see either thing happening.
But it would be quite comical if 30 000 Indian supporters turned up for say a Bangladesh – South Africa game, due to the idiotic scheduling of the quarter finals by the ICC, which is putting teams and supporters from teams in Group B at a serious disadvantage.
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The ball is wobbling quite a bit in the English style and it is increasingly obvious that Boult and Southee will absolutely slaughter our batting in the May tests. If only there were more than two.
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Sarkar and Mahmudullah have put in a decent counterattack, once Boult tired a bit, and McClenaghan bowled an expensive first over.
Dan Vettori bowled his first over to bring things back under control, but 77/2 (after 16 overs) is not a bad start. Certainly not if you realize Bangladesh were 8/1 after 7 overs.
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I just turned on a stream that of course hyenas know about when Vettori gets a wicket. Impertinent points:
I notice how Boult is brought on immediately to try to press the advantage for one over. None of the balls are crap – his first swings and leaves Mahmudullah hanging. The second is a boundary, a beautiful shot off of a ball that is merely good.
I notice how Vettori continues doing what he does – if all else fails, identical trajectory and arm motion but with variation in pace will work. His wicket previously wasn’t a terrible shot on the part of the batsman – but in my uneducated view, the most basic strategic skill on the part of a spin bowler is to impose an occupational hazard on batsmen attempting to give it a good whack straight ahead. A finely honed baseball equivalent of this skill – same arm movement, same trajectory, different speed – put Greg Maddux in the Hall of Fame.
I notice how Southee is brought on for a quick chomp at fresh meat. He bowls a maiden against the set batsman. *who is okay with that because he understands the game and how it works*. The set batsman, Mahmudullah, realizes that maybe playing out a maiden against Southee in the 31st over while not so good is maybe not a total disaster. It’s calling the bluff, a sophisticated move. I remember watching an obo of Sammy playing out a maiden in the 17th over of an IPL game against Narine. People denigrate his skills but Sammy isn’t dumb; he hit the winning runs with 3 or 4 balls to spare. An over of your good bowler is a /resource/.
Check out the scorecard of the England Sri Lanka game. Notice how Mathews went with himself and Dilshan thanks to England not attacking, thus having space for Herath having a bad day.
…
The point of this is that I think all of these examples and my observations on this are more or less correct, tactically – I hope folks will tell me if I got it wrong, but hey, I’ve been emboldened by the recent front page post on TFT as regards piping up from way the hell outside cricket.. But, anyway, these considerations – they’re all basically statistical. They relate to data. But they are /dynamic/ and /situational/. If there’s any room for ‘moneyball’ in cricket, it’s an intensely dynamic consideration – not static targets or decisions, but an accumulation of tendencies based on judgement as to what is going on right now – if I do X as a captain in the middle overs, it will cost me Y and gain me Z later on as regards to victory, probabalistically. It starts with situational judgement and ends with situational judgement and understands the finite boundaries of the game and that the critical variables may change from match to match and moment to moment.
This is exactly the opposite to how England seem to have been playing. And in a way, these dynamical considerations and the judgement based on them refer directly back to fear. Not physical fear. I feel that a lot of what’s happened with England is that it’s gotten so politically toxic and dumb inside the setup that even things that the players are not playing to win. They are playing to not be blamed for losing – which is even worse than playing not to lose.
I really don’t understand how often English cricket writers get on the case of the top scorer of the innings for getting out or even scoring slightly below the average NRR. I mean, I know how this can be a problem – I’ve seen Marlon Samuels lose West Indies many games like that. At least when Gayle stinks up the place, which he’s been doing pretty consistently when it matters, he at least only wastes a dozen deliveries or so. But this whole ‘we lost because the guy who got 70 in 90 balls whaled it to long-off and triggered a collapse’ really seems silly. But these folks are published! Maybe someone can straighten me out.
I remember sitting and watching some of the Lyon and KP battles when they were happening, and being convinced that both these guys knew exactly what they were trying to accomplish and it was on an /intensely/ higher level, as regards situational awareness, than what the journalists were writing about later. Lyon vs the India top order was at times a knife fight a couple months ago; both sides knew exactly what they were trying to do. It was all comprehensible and easy to explain in the context of the game.
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Now, after a couple more wickets have fallen, Mahmadullah has just whacked a six. has 83, and is looking pretty smart to have played out that maiden earlier.
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Watched the last ten overs of the Bangladesh innings – great stuff. Hamilton may be a small ground with a slowish pitch but they’ve beaten the ground average for first innings (273 in last ten games).
Mahmudullah’s century makes him the seventh batsman to score WC back-to-back centuries. The others – Dravid, ABDV, Sanga, Saeed Anwar, Hayden, all modern greats. He was dropped once (second slip early on). Very good late support from Sabbir who gave it a clout. NZ players clapped Mahmudullah’s century and clapped him off at the end with several handshakes. Did England in Adelaide? Do you need to ask?
NZ failed to bowl the opposition out for the first time in the tournament. McClenaghan had an absolute mare and Southee seems to have gone off the boil. Very good catches by McCullum and Taylor.
Some had said NZ needed the test of a stiff run chase. They’ve got one. McCullum to blitz it? He’s faced ten balls from Rubel Hossain in ODIs and been dismissed three times!
Great atmosphere in the ground as well.
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Shakib opened the bowling with himself. Guptill hit him for six twice in the over. He kept himself on. Next over he got McCullum and Williamson. Gutsy captaincy.
Guptill would have been LBW if it had been reviewed. Everyone seemed to assume he’d hit it but he hadn’t and it was hitting middle half way up.
Loving this.
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20 overs: 110-2.
Guptill going well and cashing in on his slice of luck with the LBW. Some suspicions he is starting to struggle with a leg injury. Taylor less fluent but not looking like getting out.
Absence of Mortaza to be crucial?
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We’re in the final 4 overs, New Zealand need 33 of 24. With just 4 wickets left. The only team to really give a great fight to New Zealand the group stages. Obviously, the ICC is looking in ways to get rid of Bangladesh.
#Meritocracya
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Downside: I can sense that “Bangladesh’s impressive performance against New Zealand puts England’s efforts on Monday into perspective” article coming over the horizon…
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Cracking game! NZ first win in 8 v Bang…
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Exciting match. Good news for NZ that Guptill found some form. He had two massive slices of luck (an LBW not reviewed and an edge through first slip when there wasn’t one) but otherwise he played very well. Elliott and Anderson also made brisk 30s but got themselves out. Worries for NZ a horribly laboured innings by Taylor, another failure for Ronchi and a lack of calm heads at the death. Even Vettori had a slog-sweet skier that was dropped.
For Bangladesh their spinners nearly got them there on a pitch turning more than Adelaide. Shakib stuck with spin but probably should have brought Rubel back for the 49th over.
More Mahmudullah stats:
1) He made more against NZ than England.
2) Seventh batsman to make back-to-back WC centuries.
3) Fourth highest run-scorer in the tournament (behind Sanga, ABDV and Dilshan)
Perspective on England’s performance against Bangladesh?
1) The pitch helped Bangladesh a lot more than Adelaide.
2) NZ are through and were swinging from the hip.
3) NZ won.
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Corey that is, not Jimmy:
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