From mere no-hopers to beating all teams: Bangladesh’s journey in ODIs – Part I
Before Bangladesh took field in the second ODI against England at Bristol in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gloucestershire-c785 against England, they had an unenviable record in ODI cricket against the same opposition. They had played 12 games against England since acquiring Test match status, and yet, never won a single match. It had been no different in the Test matches either and they had lost eight successive games to England.
So, when Bangladesh clinched that five run victory over England, they had finally managed to usurp the hold that the English side had had over the last ten years over them.
The second ODI win for Bangladesh meant that they have won an ODI against each of the current Test playing nations; India, Pakistan, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045. It had thus completed a perfect set, and it was ten years coming.
Humble beginnings for Bangladesh
Bangladesh may have acquired Test match status in 2000, but they have been playing international cricket since 1986 when they were invited to feature in the Asia Cup. However, it was not until 1998 that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752. It had taken Bangladesh a record 22 games and 12 years before they could register their first ever win in the ODI cricket and because they had not yet begun playing in the Test match variety, this was their first ever win in international cricket.
Ten games later, they achieved their second win, and it was in the World Cup of 1999, which was also the first ever that they played in. It was against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756, a side which was featuring in their first set of internationals, and had no experience whatsoever. However, it was Bangladesh’s biggest win to date, and was followed by arguably the most controversial one in their history of cricket as well a couple of games later.
This happened in the World Cup of 1999, when Bangladesh had to face Pakistan in an inconsequential league game. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292, and even as the Bangladeshi fans celebrated deliriously, there was an open debate on whether the game had been fixed.
The aspersions that had been cast on that game never went away and even today, fans look back at the match with trepidation.
A rocky Test start
The year the side got its Test status, in 2000, they also played four ODIs, against Sri Lanka, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, Pakistan and England and lost all of them. However, it went worse for them from here as 2001 saw them play only against the only slightly better Zimbabwean side, in six games, and lose each one of them. What was even worse was that Bangladesh lost each of those games rather comfortably.
There was no win out of the 12 games that they played in 2002, and then started off their World Cup campaign with a painful loss to the Associate national team, Canada. So woeful was their campaign in the World Cup that all the memories of that win over Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup were totally washed away as they went on to not win a single game in the tournament. This included the losses to Kenya and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748 as well.
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