The Daily Post

Lacklustre World-A-Team fail to provide sparkle against Bangladesh

Well, what can we say? On paper, the result looks like a spectacular win for the WAT boys, but scratch the surface and we can see that all is not well.

Once again, the bowling provided a solid performance against a poor side on a good batting wicket. Ketz is starting to look like the real deal with his delicious offies. As for the batting though, once again, WAT were saved by the marvellous Quagmire! And what a quagmire they would have been in without him? The much vaunted middle-order failed to spark on a flat track, with the ordinary bowling ripping through them. Even in the absense of star Bangladeshi bowler, Mashrafe Mortaza, WAT failed to completely dominated the bowling as planned.

This correspondant hears talk of further middle-order batsmen being in the frame for the next series. Certainly, we here at the Daily Post hope for pressure to be exerted on the incumbent middle-order rather than them feeling comfortable over retaining their place. Further competition must be seen for places in the WAT side, else we will come unstuck against better quality opposition.

Reter Poebuck

"...and brushing aside cynical comments from washed out bits-and-pieces former pros like Poebuck, with his test bowling average of 2450 and batting average of 1.25, I say we generally performed well and our batting will improve. I enjoyed my anchoring role with the tail and economy with the ball, creating pressure to take wickets and help the other guys. I express full admiration for Quagmire and Ketz, who are quality and will prove that in future tours as well as this one..."

WAT News today caught up with an interview with WAT XI freshman Karthik:

"I'm qiute happy with my performance in the 2nd test against Bangladesh.My performance will hopefully keep moving upwards.I picked up a few valuable wickets and added some runs to my score.I also want to congratulate Quagmire for his brilliant performance in the match.But this is no time to get over confident and throw it away.The 3rd test is coming and I'm looking forward to it and am going to concentrate on it before I think about it further."

Karthik in 2nd Test:

Batting:

1st innings:15 runs
2nd innings: DNB

Bowling:

1st innings:1 wicket
2nd innings:4 wickets

3 wickets for me in the match, happy with my performance. I know the conditions well of course

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Could we have an increase in average if we show a good performace.That would help to keep your place in the team.

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Karthik Venkatesan

The game works on form, if you are on song, then you play well. However, once in a while, it gives a bad performance so that there is a chance that you might be dropped. I'll sort out that name aswell!

BREAKING NEWS

Right arm Fast bowler Hamza has been droped from the 3rd test squad...

His comments " I am really hurt not just phisically but now more mentally I know why I didnt get selected for the 3rd test. I am not in the best of form but hopefully I know I can get my form back and get reacalled for the ODI team. Just to remind every one I am a ALLROUNDER and I think i should be batted higher first match I batted last. So you know, but I am a genral ODI player and hopefully you will see me in the odi's in great form. Thank You no farther comments"

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CRICKET IS IN MY BLOOD

Bangladesh V World A Team
Third Test - Dhaka
Pitch State = Poor

World A Team won the toss and elected to bowl first

BANGLADESH First Innings
136 all out

Again, another dreadful first innings for Bangladesh - they just can't get the hang of batting against the strong bowling attackk of World A Team. The middle order did get into double figures, but the tail were disasterous with 9, 10 and 11 all getting ducks. The top scorer was the ever-reliable Habibul Bashar with a brilliant 38. He showed character, and really deserved a 50.
On the bowling side, World A Team should be impressed. The only player not to take a wicket was Chris Wilson, but he bowled economically, thus helping the rest of the team out. Hailwood, Ketz, V-Rock and the surprise inclusion of Merchant all took 2 wickets. Rifat and Kartik taking one each. Now could World A Team live up to their batting prowess and get a big lead, or will the lead be smaller than we think?

WORLD A TEAM First Innings
198 all out

Not a great performance by the World A Team batsmen, although there are only 5 pure batsmen in the team - so it is unsurprising that they only got a low score. The top order fired once again, but Quagmire did not go on after breaking into the 30's. Rhys Williams opened with a decent 26 - but star of the show was Rehan with a brilliant 62. Greg Jones should watch out for Adam Berry after being caught for just 5. The two all rounders did OK, V-Rock with 12 and Chris Wilson with a great 34. The tail failed miserably - with Rolf Merchant's place still under threat after he was caught for another low score. (This time a duck).
Bangladesh did not bowl to badly, although it was a story of just two bowlers. Manjural Islam who bowled 27 overs for his 5-65 and Habibul Hossain who bowled 22.3 overs for his 4-49. Both of these bowlers should be very impressed with their bowling - but now, Bangladesh must try and build up a big score to try and prevent World A Team from whitewashing the home nation.

BANGLADESH Second Innings
135 all out

One less run scored than in the first innings, and now the Tigers will have to bowl extremely well to prevent a 3-0 victory for World A Team here. This time, there were general hits and misses down the order, with Habibul Bashar, once again, providing the top score with another decent score of 35. However, he and the team must now feel it is all in vain.
On the bowling front, there were no stars, but the whole team got in on it again, which is a good sign that they are coming together. Rifat was the best of the bowlers with 2-5 from 8.3 overs, extremely economical. V-Rock backed him up with 2-10 off 8 overs. Now, it was a question of how many wickets would fall before World A Team reached the target of 74.

WORLD A TEAM Second Innings
76 for 1

For the first time in the series, World A Team had to bat for the second time in a match. When Rhys Williams was out for a duck off only his third ball, tensions mounted in the World A Team dressing room, would it be a close one? However, through the skill of Quagmire who started and converted once again, ending on 53 not out and Rehan who played a steady 28 not out, World A Team reached their target with ease. Thus taking a 3-0 series, and whitwashing the Tigers in their first ever tour. Congratulations World A Team!
On the bowling front, well nothing to say.

WORLD A TEAM defeated BANGLADESH by 9 wickets.
Man of the Match = V-Rock.


POST SERIES TALK

REP: Let's welcome the World A Team captain, Rhys Williams!

RW: Cheers, I'm very happy to be here.

REP: We all saw the series in great anticipation of what your boys could achieve, and lo-and-behold, they have done it. A whitewash on your first tour, you must be pleased.

RW: I am extremely pleased. The boys put in all the hard work, with a few slips along the way, but we managed to win 3-0 and now play the Tigers in a 3 match one day series.

REP: Who do you think will win the one day series?

RW: Well, it's hard to tell. Bangladesh have this habit at coming back at you, as show in the last test. We haven't even played a one day international yet, so we could lose. But I'm hoping that we'll take both series here in Bangladesh, before moving onto the West Indies in January.

REP: Cool, nice talking to you.

RW: Likewise.

WORLD A TEAM win the test match series against BANGLADESH by 3 games to 0.

Join us soon for the first ODI.

Check out the scorecard below to see how YOU did in the final test.

Attached Files

SCORE.TXT (10.8 KB, 19 views)

Excellent win guys, hi-fives all-round. I'm looking forward to nailing my bunny, Khaled Mashud, repeatedly in the ODI series and predict a 3-0 whitewash.

WAT News,Interview with Karthik:

"Very pleasing performace by our team.We beat a good Bangladeshi side 3-0 in the test series with all matches being won by an innings.But the tour hasn't come to an end yet.The Bangladeshis can bounce in the ODI series so we have to hold onto ourselves.It's a tense moment for me as well because I don't know about the selction commitee's decision - Am I playing or not?Well,we'll have to wait for the squads to come out."

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Karthik Venkatesan