Sunday, March 18, 2007

The tigers of cricket have emerged!

...or should we call them the tiger cubs? All but two players are between 17 (yes that's one and seven - seventeen!) and 24 and not only they play GREAT cricket but they're cool and composed and calculative. The Bangladesh Cricket squad did some serious a** kicking in their game against India in the World Cup...and managed to pull a 5 wicket win.

Their balling was awesome, their batting was smashing and their fielding was spec-ta-cular but the best part was how matured their game was. They did not break a sweat even though they knew that that cricket giant India has been deemed as one of the possible champions this time.

But Bashar and the boys came and managed to say “adios” to all the Indian batsmen in 191 runs, with some superior balling by Mashrafee, Russell, Razzak and Rafique. In the outfield, not a stoppable or catchable ball went by passed them.

Then the batting side also outperformed their counterparts. With opener Tamim smashing away to get a 51, and Musfique, promoted from fourth to the first down to prove that he may just have it in him to be the next captain, with a stunning 56 and lasting all the way to the end without getting out. Sakib also scored 53, to show that the squad doesn’t put on a one man show.

We were SO ecstatic and pumped up about the win that we decided to bring out our bats and pads ahead of time and played a quick round of cricket ourselves, in the cold Seattle rain! I lost my voice while watching the Tigers beat the c*** out of the Indians and sneezing away after our adventure in the rain…and still couldn’t stop jumping up and down in celebration!

Another highlight of the celebration was when a Pakistani friend called (moments after the Pakistan loss) to congratulate me and wished that their side would play as professionally as the Bangladeshis and he’s now supporting Bangladesh for the rest of the WC. Just to think, before we got the ICC status, so many of us have grown up supporting the Imran Khans and the Wasim Akrams in world cricket, but now the tide is turning…and it’s our time!

Congrats to the young Tigers for bringing us this moment.

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