Uprising of the green tigers

       Currently many of the cricket lovers might know how Bangladesh cricket team are going on great strides following their superb performance against top team in ODI and T20 forms of cricket and slowly started erasing their minnows tag.

Khaled Mahmud

       I don't know how many of them might know when Bangladesh started their giant killing act,It all started during the 1999 world cup,Bangladeshi tigers shocked 1999 worldcup runner up Pakistan by posting a meager target of 223,Bangladesh bundled out Pakistan for a mere 161 in what was considered as one of the biggest upset of all time,thanks to the current Bangladesh's assistant coach Khaled Mahmud and Mohammed Rafique, who bowled some brilliant spell that lead to this victory.

Mohammad Rafique

            It lead to Bangladesh getting International test status,In their maiden test match against India Bangladesh  put up brilliant 1st innings total of 400 runs with the help of beautiful 145  runs by the middle order batsmen Aminul Islam.While India replied with a total of 429 runs.While Bangladesh failed to transform their brilliant display in their 1st innings to their 2nd innings as they were bundled out to 91 runs in their 2nd innings.Finally india won that match by 9 wickets.

        It followed by a huge slump by bangladesh cricket team for nearly the next 5 years. Then came the rising stars of Bangladesh cricket viz Mashrafe mortaza (current odi and t20 captain) , Mohammed ashraful and Aftab ahmed.In a triangular odi series involving England and Australia.Ashraful's terrific ton helped Bangladesh defeated Australia in what was considered as huge upset as Aussie were playing with their full strength squad losing to a minnow.It followed by a win against Srilanka and also a 2nd string Indian team and during that match current Indian captain Mahendra singh dhoni made his international debut on a losing effort.

           Biggest shock came in the 2007 ODI world cup,when Tamim Iqbal's wonderful fifty helped Bangladesh produce a huge upset victory over a strong Indian team led by Rahul Dravid,that led to India exiting the world cup  in the round robin stage,while Bangladesh progressed to the super 8 stage for the first time and produced another enthralling victory against the Proteas team in the super 8 stage,while they lost rest of their matches against all teams that includes the defeat against new entrant Ireland.

          While Bangladesh produced a superb victory against a formidable westindies team in the inaugural 2007 T20 worldcup which was won by India.Bangladesh formed a good combination with a new crop of players viz all rounder shakib al hasan,wicket keeper batsmen mushfiqur rahim,During the 2011 worldcup,where the tigers defeated England for the first time in the history of cricket,while Bangladesh team weren't able to progress to the next stage as usual.

       

Bangladesh's upset victory over India in 2012 Asia cup

   
        During the 2012 Asia cup, Bangladesh defeated both srilanka and India.Where sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th ton on a losing effort.Bangladesh reached the final of the asia cup for the first time and lost to Pakistan in a hard fought battle.

From left to right:-Shakib Al Hasan,Mashrafe Mortaza,Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal

          While 2015 can be termed as golden age of Bangladesh cricket under the captaincy of Mashrafe Mortaza.Where they defeated a powerful English unit that led to Bangladesh getting their first quaterfinals spot in a 50 over worldcup,where they eventually lost to India in the quaterfinals thus getting knocked out of the 2015 worldcup.

            With new crop of superb players rising,Bangladesh whitewashed Pakistan in a home odi series 3-0. Rookie fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman who made his debut against  home ODI series versus Indian team punished India with his superb swing bowling and excellent batting by mushfiqur rahim,shakib al hasan and sowmya sarkar led to Bangladesh registering their first ODI series against India 2-1.Which was followed by another big odi series win against the South african team with a margin of 2-1.Which led to Bangladesh reaching their highest rank of number 7 in the international odi ranking, thus qualified for the 2017 champions trophy for the first time in the history of Bangladesh cricket and also started showing the world cricket that they aren't minnows any more.

Upcoming talent Mustafizur Rahman

               2016 also started on a good note for Bangladesh as their junior team led by all rounder Mehdy hassan helped Bangladesh finished a remarkable 3rd position for the first time.While bangladesh senior t20 team made some remarkable victory over srilanka and pakistan,which led them reach the finals,where they lost the finals against India,while the superb knock of Mahmudullah riaz and sabbir rahman went on vain.

                  Now this Strong bangladeshi tigers will be playing the round robin league against the minnows to qualify for the Super 10 stage of the 2016 T20 worldcup that is being held in India for the first time since it's start.Let's hope to see the the surprises, the green tigers might cause during this worldcup.Watch out for some mind boggling cricket by the tigers in the days to come.


  

Where is kuldeep yadav?

         I think everyone remembers this name and it's none other than 20 year old Kuldeep yadav who is hyped as India's only slow chinaman bowler.who came to limelight after his superb bowling in 2014 under 19 worldcup in an otherwise bitter tourney  for the team and his mind blowing bowling spell for kolkata knight riders in the 2014 champions league and also surprisingly selected for odi series squad against westindies without even playing a single first class or List A match for his home team Uttar pradesh.

Where is he now??????????
My answer is simple,The most hyped bowler kuldeep yadav had a mediocre outing for uttar pradesh in the recently concluded Vijay hazare trophy by just picking 3 wickets from 5 matches at an average of 64.33 but with a very good economy rate of 4.38, but this statistics is poor comparing his potential.
But the only positive aspect is that these spells were bowled in conditions which suits fast bowlers very well.

But in his first class debut for central zone,Kuldeep yadav bowled really well by claiming 3 wickets and scored an important 56 runs in the 2nd innings against North zone.
After that Kuldeep yadav made his debut for Uttar pradesh,where he was standout bowler for the team by claiming 4/48 in the 1st innings against madhya pradesh in what was a decent debut for a young man like kuldeep yadav and that too in a fast bowlers paradise.where uttar pradesh ruffled aside Madhya pradesh in the 2nd innings for a meagre score by amit mishra an upcoming fast bowler from uttar pradesh. Don't get confused with amit mishra who is a leg spinner playing for india and haryana.

After then came a shocking exclusion of kuldeep yadav from the uttar pradesh side for rest of the 4 matches including the currently ongoing match against Tamilnadu. While another talented spinner Ali murtaza replaced him in all the 4 matches.The surprise element is that both the lucknow and chennai pitch are considered spinners paradise.while uttar pradesh's ace spinner and captain piyush chawla and ali murtaza had a mediocre outing in all the 3 matches and I can't comment on their play against tamilnadu as the match is still going on.Now uttar pradesh is in relagation zone after a mediocre performance in all the 3 matches after the exclusion of kuldeep yadav.

As a cricket enthusiast and analyst, I like to know one simple reason from uttar pradesh cricket association why upcoming spinner kuldeep yadav is excluded from the team despite his creditable performance in his first ranji outing.

1)Is kuldeep yadav injured?

2)Is kuldeep yadav dropped due to disciplinary reason?

3)Is captain piyush chawla doesn't want a competitor like kuldeep yadav in the team?

4)Is Uttar pradesh cricket association does't want to encourage youngsters like kuldeep yadav?

If the answer is negative then it's better kuldeep yadav should discontinue playing for uttar pradesh after the completion of the current ranji season and then join a team which lacks good spinners like mumbai,tamilnadu,Bengal in order to have a safe future and to fulfil his ambitions of getting indian cap as kuldeep yadav warmed up the bench for uttar pradesh last ranji season too.BCCI need to take action against uttar pradesh cricket association if kuldeep is excluded without any reason.

Mysterious spinners

     In the history of cricket we have seen many mysterious bowlers who were unplayable at first then after some years they are apple pie  for the batsmen and so I am going to give you guys some details about world's past and present mysterious bowlers who were a nightmare to batsmen.
I am going to start with a mysterious spinner who is well known to the world cricket and he is none other than srilankan spinner ajantha mendis.Ajantha is considered mysterious as he can bowl flipper,off spin,leg spin,slow medium,faster balls,top spin and googlies and his variation and length also varies to ball by ball and so he was a greatest nightmare to most of the international cricketers.He is the inventor of carrom ball which is now followed my india's ravichandran ashwin.But soon ajantha's legacy has come to an end as many batsmen has opened the mystery and now at present he isn't even a regular bowler in lankan squad as there is no mystery left.
   Now it is the turn of former southafrican left arm chinaman paul adams.Paul adams's action was more unorthodox as it surprised many cricketers but soon faded during australia tour due to lack of variety.But paul was a regular bowler after 1995 but faded during 2000's that led to his retirement from professional cricket during 2008.But paul adams is still remembered for his unorthodox action by cricket fans.
       Now we can see pakistan's greatest mysterious spinner saqlain mushtaq who is considered as the inventor of doosra ,teesra,chotha and arm ball.saqlain is one of the lethal spinner ever produced by pakistan and he is one of the best off break in the world where the batsmen find it more difficult to tackle but during 2003, saqlain left pakistan and settled in  england and now atpresent saqlain is eligible to play for england and now too saqlain is a nightmare in english county cricket as he is inventing many innovative techniques.
       Another pakistani mysterious bowler is saeed ajmal who is becoming a dangerous nightmare in present day cricket.Ajmal is a off break bowler who can bowl mysterious doosra and teesra and confuse the batsmen.He fell in controversy due to his doosra  and teesra.But besides all these controversies saeed is a great gem for the pakistan team.
        It is none other than windies mystery sunil narine who is until now considered a mysterious off break bowler and can bowler in various length and line and narine is a star performer in the ipl 2012 who is  a nightmare for batsmen in ipl 2012 and champions league 2011.He wasn't able to shine in his test debut against england on the final test but is still considered the best off break bowler for windies who has good international future.

Under utilised local talents

     IPL  is born out just to destroy ICL[Indian cricket league], which was considered rebel league as they boosted young talents by giving them appropriate money and gave exposure to young indian talents by combining indian talents with foreigners.
      IPL from the first is totally under utilizing local talents but gives more importance to star cricketers from india  and foreign countries.According to me IPL isn't played to develop new local talents but it is played just to attract people with powerful foreigner and indian stars and eat more money with ridiculous ticket fairs that isnot affordable to middle class cricket enthusiasts with pricing starts from  Rs. 200 and ends with Rs 7000.
      For example I start with a single example with ranji trophy  top run scorers robin bist and abhinav mukund haven't even given a single opportunity to prove their worth and now itself  ipl teams have considered these two is fit only for domestic test.While oldie sachin,rahul dravid and sourav ganguly are getting opportunity to boost up the crowd and sourav ganguly has planned to play until 40 and sourav is a bcci executive member.There are lots and lots of talent who are overlooked in ipl due to money power that rules each team.
      I don't know why ICL's hard hitter ganapati vignesh who is associated with chennai superkings isn't given an opportunity to prove his worth even though vignesh is better than some of the current indian international star who are playing ridiculous cricket.
      But uncapped foreign players were treated like gift of god and were taken in auctions by spending more money while uncapped indian stars gets just Rs.30 lakhs and weren't allowed in auctions.I don't know why partiality exists in money matters.
     While famous english county is producing good international cricketers as their county system sounds fantastic as only 2 foreign players are allowed to play in a county team and they also have 2 division in all formats namely  elite and plate divisions and many local english players gets an opportunity to play in the league and also gets a chance to improve their techniques by sharing experiences with foreign stars. IPL  has only 9 teams,4 foreign players are allowed to play in a playing XI while english county has 20 teams with just 2 foreign players are allowed to play in playing XI.Then where is possibility improvement in indian cricket.
      BCCI should learn a lesson that they arenot here to attract audience and make money but they are here to encourage local talents and make a strong indian team.
       Atleast in the future there should be either more teams in ipl or the present ipl teams should  be scrapped and these rich ipl team owners should take care of the local state teams and these rich owners should supports all formats i.e 5 day test format,50-50 overs and t20 format.Foreign in each team should be restricted to 2 players in playing XI. If these doesn't happen india doesn't have a good future in cricket.So BCCI should change their policies for a better future
     
         
   

Great wall of windies

     Can you guys guess whom I am talking about and it's none other than cricket's unsung hero shivnarine chanderpaul.Shiv is a lanky left handed batsmen from guyana who is in windies test squad from the day he made his debut against england at 1994.
      Shiv is famous for his calm and composed display of batting in test cricket.His slow and steady display of batting have saved windies on many occasions .He is really a  batsmen feared by many bowlers round the world.
     Until now I don't know why young cricketers have followed his cricketing skills.Shiv has some distinct records of not losing his wicket for more than 1000minutes not just single time but for 4 times.It shows how skillful a cricketer can be as standing in the crease for more than 1000 minutes isnot a simple task.
   shiv cannot be just considered as slow and steady batsmen as I holds the record for hitting fourth fastest 100 in test cricket from just 69 balls that shows how multi talented and how he can adjust according to the circumstances.
     Shiv has a distinct record of averaging 100 in 2 different calender years and the record is done only by sir don bradman other than shiv.It shows his passion to cricket and a lovely player to watch and shows how bowlers will cry bowling against him.
       shiv is currently second highest test run getter for windies after lara and just completed his 10,000 mark in test cricket and he is also the most capped test cricketer in windies test history with 140 test caps.He also holds distinct records like hitting 7 consecutive 50's in test cricket.
      Until now shiv is a unsung hero in the cricket history even though he saved windies from critical situations.
Even now in the current  test series against number one english side he showed his spirit for cricket by helping windies single handedly with his batsmanship to help windies score better target.
   All hail shivnarine chanderpaul the future icc hall of famer for his highly rated batsmanship skills.This man cannot be praised with words and his records are infinite.Let's hope to watch out his superb display of batting skill and shiv is a gifted person with excellent batting skills.

     

Pakistan's last laugh

        It was a heart throbbing asia cup finale between between pakistan and Bangladesh. Pakistan started their proceedings by batting first.Pakistan had a slow start with both the openers failing to impress as they lost their crucial opener jamshed when the score ticked 16.A close call costed the wicket of veteran younus khan.opener hafeez and misbah played a defensive knock even though bangladeshi bowling wasn't that much impressive.There was a sudden break through for bangladesh when misbah had a mix up with hafeez, misbah was a ran out by the beautiful throw from bangladeshi youngster nasir hossain.When hafeez was picking up his form and unwantedly played a lofted shot to sacrifice his wicket to razzak thus bringing pakistan in danger to a total of 70 for 4.

Umar akmal and newbie allrounder hamad azam played some sensible knock thus bringing pakistan back in the game with their 50+ partnership.Suddenly pakistan lost both their inform batsmen to bangladeshi spinners even though it was a controversial decision for umar akmal led pakistan to a disastrous position to a total of 129 for 5.

Pakistan boom boom afridi fully utilised powerplay 3 by squandering past bangladeshi spinners and pace attack with some excellent fours and sixes and suddenly gave away his wicket to shakib for his ambitious knock.

Pakistani wicketkeeper safraz ahmed's suprising knock of 46 with the help of tailenders reach them a modest total of 236 runs.During slog overs bangladeshi bowlers failed to impress with their attack that helped pakistan in a best manner possible.

Bangladesh started their proceeding in a best manner possible by a prolific knock by tamim and sturdy innings by nazim helped bangladesh cross 50 runs partnership and tamim also achieved his fourth consecutive fifty during their partnership.But a sudden breakthrough by afridi and ajmal left bangladesh in a little bit tensed situation as they lost both nazim and islam for mere scores.Nasir hossain, bangladesh biggest bet came to crease to accompany tamim but tamim couldnot long last as he paid his price for his offensive display and gave away his wicket to Gul.

Bangladesh was again rejuvenated by the powerful batting display by shakib and sturdy innings by nasir saw bangladesh cross 150 mark.Again bangladesh lost their inform batsmen nasir hossain,shakib and rahim in quick succession to keep the score ticking 190 for 6.

Lower middle order all rounder mahmudullah and mortaza played some excellent shots and helped bangladesh back to a winning position but it hasn't lasted long as pakistan got the crucial breakthrough of mortaza who was in dangerous form and thanks to pakistani hero ajmal for capturing his wicket that made bangladesh sinking in 218 for 7.

49th over by gul started off badly but ended the over better as bangladesh were in need of 9 runs of the final over of cheema. singles of the first 2 balls followed by a dot.In the 4th ball of the final over saw unnecessary overthrows gave bangladesh 3 runs and bangladesh were in need of 4 runs from 2 balls with abdur razzak staying the crease.Razzak's unnecessary ambitious scoop leading to his dismissal.Bangladesh were in need of 4 runs from the final ball with shahadat staying in the crease as he could really make just a run.Thus leading bangladesh's asia cup dream reaching an end.

Finally it was pakistan who were crowned the new asian champions after a gap of 12 years.

Thrilling st.vincent tie

I t was a most entertaining and crucial 3rd odi between aussie and windies as both the team were tied 1-1 each.Aussie batted first with some floppy start by losing both losing both watson and wade for mere numbers.Even warner can just contribute 37 in a good st.vincent wicket.

Mr.cricket and george bailey changed the situation of aussie with some enthralling innings both crossing their fifties but both falling to marlon samuels to bring aussie to a respectable situation.

Again lower middle order batsmen including david hussey and the rest of them couldn't make much hype as they continued their flop show against windies. As aussie lost all the final 6 wickets for just 18 runs.

Narine and samuels again proved their worth by collapsing the strong aussie side for a mere 220 which is considered a stiff target in a typical windies pitch.

windies started their innings in a worst fashion by losing keiran powell,samuels and darren bravo for a mere runs as all the 3 wickets were chipped in by watson.Great performance by newbie charles proved worthy for windies by scoring 45 runs.After charles and dwayne bravo being dismissed as the windies remained 78 for 5.In that time aussie were in a good position to seal the match.

Again a whirlwind performance by pollard took windies to a good position but windies lost the wicket of dangerous pollard for 37 and windies were floating at 117 for 6.

With russel and baugh staying at the crease there was a drama when russel was bowled off by watson in a no ball and again russel was bowled off in a no ball in the free hit delivery.

An excellent match saving 64 runs partnership between baugh and russel kept windies in a contest.But again windies lost both their saviours to mckay and kept the score ticking 190 for 8.sammy and narine stayed at the crease and narine scored the crucial 10runs and have to go to pavillion and kept windies in bay for 204 for 9.

sammy with the help of tailenders narine and roach helped windies reach close to the target and with sammy hitting a boundary in final over of lee.Windieslevelled the scores with 3 balls remaining.

There was another drama when there was a mix up between sammy and roach stranded in the same end as brett lee removed the bails.

Finally it ended in a thrilling tie and it is one of the fantastic matches to watch out for.Mr.cricket received the match of the match award for his superb knock of 67 runs.