Bangladesh creates history with whitewash of New Zealand
Recently the Bangladesh national cricket team, also called the Tigers, played against New Zealand and to a lot of people’s surprise totally decimated the Kiwis.
The reason for the surprise was that a lot of people may have thought that Bangladesh would win a few matches and maybe even win the Series but a total whitewash was not expected. The South Asian nation has really come a long way and has improved greatly
over the last few years.
It seems Bangladesh went from being serious underdogs to suddenly becoming actually good at the game. This rise up the ranks of cricket just looks like it is going to continue and Bangladesh will soon become a very dominant force in the sport.
Cricket is a very popular sport in Bangladesh, just as it is in India and Pakistan, its neighbours in the Subcontinent. Even though cricket is a big part of the country, Bangladesh did not make its entrance into international cricket until 1979. That year,
it entered the ICC Trophy in England and managed to secure two wins but also got two defeats by the end of it.
The country played its first One Day international match in 1986 against Pakistan. In Bangladesh, before cricket arrived, football was very popular, but once people started playing cricket, it slowly became the top sport in the country.
Bangladesh improved every year and one of their crowning achievements was when they managed to win the ICC Trophy, held in Malaysia in 1997. With this impressive win, the team managed to qualify for the 1999 World Cup, in which they beat Pakistan to secure
one of the biggest cricket upsets of that time.
Besides winning the ICC Trophy in 1997, the country also became a regular ICC member to be able to contest One Day Internationals. In 2000, the Tigers gained further cricketing recognition by becoming a full ICC Member and it received the status of a Test
playing nation.
Bangladesh has not always been a strong cricket side. It consistently ranked at the bottom of the current crop of cricketing countries and a lot of people called for its Test status to be revoked.
But the side persevered and slowly they started to improve. With the appointment of current coach, Jamie Siddons, the Test playing ability of the country has steadily improved. With a new training regime and an improved work ethic, the side is looking significantly
better than it did in previous years and it is all set to take advantage of the current poor form affecting countries like the West Indies and Pakistan.
Just how much it has improved was shown during the recently concluded Series against New Zealand. Bangladesh managed to win the Micromax ODI Series 4-0 with some thrilling performances.
The final match was played yesterday and even though the Bangladeshis could only manage a low total of 174 runs during their innings, a fine bowling performance from Rubel Hossain saw the Kiwis crumble with just 3 runs to get. It was an exciting match and
showed just how much the Bangladeshis have improved over the years.
Some have blamed a very poor batting display from the New Zealand team for their inability to win any match during the tournament but some have rightly given credit to the Bangladesh team.
With talent such as Rubel in their side and a consistent performance from their captain, Shakib al Hasan, they looked the dominant side throughout the tournament. Rubel managed to get 4 wickets for only 25 runs in the last match to become the man-of-the-match
and it was his fine bowling performance that stunned the Kiwis.
In the next few years, the World will keep its eyes on Bangladesh to see what the small country can produce. It will be interesting to see if they can continue with their fine form of late or if they will slip back to their previous level. If their recent
performance is anything to go by, we will see a very strong cricketing side emerge to rattle the cages of the big boys of the sport.
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