Once again, they failed miserably as New Zealand tore through Bangladesh with more than 20 overs to spare. The Bangladesh batting was a shambles as they continued to look out of depth and for some reason swing to extremes with their strategy. Against Australia, they were hell bent on hitting out while against New Zealand, they took so long to settle down, that soon enough, they had put so much pressure on themselves, that they had to start hitting out again! And the results were obvious.
The flash that the top order had shown very early on in the tournament has all but disappeared and Bangladesh managed to reach 174 thanks to some sensible aggressive batting by Mohammed Rafique (30* off 36 balls). The rest of the top order managed to all get into 20s, but no one went ahead to make an impact.
Shane Bond once again shone bright with figures of 10-4-15-2 and the Bangladeshi batsmen found him virtually unplayable. Stephen Fleming as captain and batsman is one of the best in the tournament along with Ricky Ponting. His 102 was his first big contribution this tournament but with some big matches coming up, it would only hold him in good stead.
Bangladesh was never expected to go beyond this stage, but the cruelty of the format has once again brought itself to the fore with one loss costing India and making six matches in the Super Eight one-sided! The experience will definitely help Bangladesh but they need to make incredible strides in the remaining matches to justify their presence in the tournament.
Man of the Match - Shane Bond
On his future prospect
"It's something that has driven me since my first series in Australia, it's always been my goal to be the number one bowler in the world," - "It's just about assessing and adjusting to those conditions and bowling well. If you are bowling consistently in the right areas you are going to have success."
