TIGERS RAISING THEIR LEVEL

The latest from the West Indies v Bangladesh 1st Test, 28 May- 1 June, 2004, St Lucia is that the match is drawn. But Bangladesh's achievements from this match are:

* They have scored 687 runs in both innings against the fierce (atleast on the books) bowling side of WI, their highest in 29 Test matches they have played including this.

* Bangladesh team has produced three centuries:

1st innings:
- Habibul Bashar 113
- Mohammad Rafique 111 (Batting at number 9)

2nd Innings:
- Khaled Mashud 103* (Batting at number 8)

* They have declared for the first time at 271/9 in 2nd innings challenging WI to reach a total of 336.

* They could recover a collapse (which is a weakness of Bangladesh team) from 72/2 to 79/6 in the 2nd innings.

At times Bangladesh really frustrated WI with their defiance. But its true that Bangladesh couldn't apply pressure to WI except from their first innings lead.

There is no doubt that we, Bangladeshis are happy with our boys performance. Actually after winning the test status, we expected them to perform like this (nobody did think that Bangladesh would win right from start). But they took a couple of years to come upto this standard, where they can be competitive in any match, against any opposition if they can maintain their performance and keep improving.

I would like to heartily thank Scott, Michael, Tim and Ambidextri for their encouragements and support for Bangladesh specially at Ubersprotingpundit blog. Please keep that in mind that these gentlemen do not write for money but for sheer love of the game.

Scott criticizes the Caribbean journalists about not reporting the indepth stories of this match & not giving Bangladesh the credit they deserved.

He says:

Sure, the Windies are not the force that they once were, but I still think that Bangladesh has come a long way.