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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

History of Bangladesh Cricket In International Level


2005
Early January, Bangladesh defeated Zimbabwe in their 35th Test, their first ever Test match victory. In the first Test of the series, Bangladesh defeated Zimbabwe by 226 runs in Chittagong Stadium. Bangladesh scored a huge total of 488 in their first innings. In reply, Zimbabwe were all out for only 312 for their first innings. Bangladesh's 2nd innings was declared after scoring 204 for 9 wickets. Powered by a spirited spell from Enamul Haque Jr., who took 6 wickets for 45 runs, Bangladesh wrapped up Zimbabwe's innings for only 154.
Bangladesh would have needed to get the fourth-highest fourth innings total to win in Test cricket history in the second Test of the series. They opted to play out the last four sessions playing conservatively and consequently secured a draw. This gave the team its first Test series win and triggered scenes of wild jubilation across the country. National coach Dav Whatmore was later quoted as saying that playing overly-aggressive cricket to try to win the Test would not have been a good idea.
Bangladesh also secured their first One Day International series win in the same tour. Despite losing the first two matches of the five-match series, they recovered to win the series 3-2.
On 18 June, Bangladesh scored an upset victory over Australia in the NatWest Series. Australia scored 249 runs for 5 wickets in 50 overs. In reply, Bangladesh reached 250 runs with 4 balls to spare. Mohammad Ashraful scored 100 runs off just 101 balls, his first one-day century, while Aftab Ahmed hit a huge six in the first ball of the final over, and hit a single for the next ball to win the game. This win was a triumph for a Bangladeshi team that had been criticised by Richie Benaud, Mike Gatting and others as incompetent and not good enough for Test or ODI cricket in the English media, just days before.Here is the scorcard of the match: