Bangladesh v New Zealand 2nd Test .........Devoured By The Prey

Dhaka, Saturday 25th October 03.30 GMT
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Bangladesh v New Zealand - Test matches

Bangladesh in New Zealand Test Series	2001/02		New Zealand	2-0 (2)
New Zealand in Bangladesh Test Series	2004/05		New Zealand	2-0 (2)
Bangladesh in New Zealand Test Series	2007/08		New Zealand	2-0 (2)

I am a big fan of wildlife shows and often see Tigers cleverly stalk their prey, then corner them before devouring them. Though I have sometimes seen that prey escape the clutches of the Tigers, I have never seen them actually overcome and devour the hunter instead!

Well, that was what we witnessed in the Test at Chittagong.

The Bangladesh Tigers, after a bad start at 44-4, slowly but slowly manoeuvred themselves cleverly to post a first innings score of 245.

This did not seem much at the time, but this was a very difficult pitch and the Kiwis also struggled. They too slipped to 52-4 before rallying to post a modest 171.

This lead of 74 runs on first innings on a treacherous pitch should have put the Tigers in an impregnable position. However, they again collapsed early in the second innings and found themselves 49-4.

Then followed another fightback from their lower order as they again slowly but surely manoeuvred themselves into a position of strength. They recovered to post 242, setting the Kiwis 317 to win. On that pitch, 317 was an imposing target. It appeared that Tigers had stalked their prey with success, had them cornered and ready for the kill.

Me and the rest of the world watched in anticipation of a seeing the Tigers devour their prey, but alas we were left astounded at the sight of the prey fighting back and not only escaping the clutches of the hunter, but actually overpower and devour it.

It seems that at the critical moment, the Tigers had become toothless, they had become timid and in the end they succumbed.

The two stand out performances in that test were the all round efforts of Shakib Al Hasan for Bangladesh, taking 7 wickets in the first innings and scoring 71 runs in the second. A great effort, but even this was overshadowed by an amazing performance from the Kiwi captain, Daniel Vettori.

He took 9 wickets in the match and scores of 55 and 76 in the two innings. One of the truly great all round performances of recent times, without which the Kiwi’s would have been sunk without a trace.

Now we move on to the 2nd and final Test of this series. The venue is Mirpur.

So what can we expect this time?

Firstly, this pitch, whilst again being slow and turgid, will be marginally better for batting, especially on first 3 days. I still expect attritional cricket, but this time I expect higher first innings scores for both teams and the Draw to come into the equation far more then it did at Chittagong.

The top order of both teams underperformed there with McCullum and Taylor for the Kiwis and Siddique and Ashraful for Bangladesh being particularly disappointing.

I believe both top orders will fare better here and I expect big scores from some of these big guns.

Once again I expect spin to play a major role and in that department I feel the two teams are evenly matched. The pitch will get slower and lower by days four and five and a first innings lead will again be crucial.

There are rumours that Jacob Oram may miss this game due to back spasms. If this turns out to be the case, then it will be a big blow to the Kiwis. He has held the late batting order together in the past and his experience and power has helped the Kiwis get out of some sticky situations.

Bangladesh look like fielding an unchanged side and they will have been buoyed by their efforts in the first Test and will be confident of putting in another good performance.

Key to this game will be if the Bangladesh top order can play to their potential and get them off to a decent start. If they can do that, then I believe they are more then capable of scoring enough runs to at least ensure a draw, if not a win.

Ashraful, Siddique, Iqbal and Saleh are too good on their home tracks to keep failing and so I am happy to give them another chance.

So what’s the bet?

Once again, Bangladesh ended up frustrating their backers in the last test. But those same backers would once again at least have had opportunities to lock in a profit on the game as Bangladesh traded as low as 1.50 in the markets from an opening price of 9.0.

I think those trading opportunities will be aplenty again in this Test as I see another close contest.

The Kiwis are rightly Favourites, but they represent no value at short odds. I believe Bangladesh are more then capable of at least holding out for a draw, and a win for them cannot be ruled out either.

Therefore the play is:

BACK the Draw for 2 points @ 5.8 on Betfair
And
BACK Bangladesh for 1 point @ 8.5 at Boylesports.

Join me, and hopefully normal service will be restored in the jungle and we see the Tigers not only corner their prey, but devour them too.

Bigjoe