Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka

Not much of a match, right? Bangladesh is twice as big and has seven times the population, but their team is young and (though full of beans) inexperienced, whereas Sri Lanka's has been around for decades and is actually quite good... I mean fuck they even have cheating spinners and shit.

We caught a taxi halfway across town tonight to watch the start of the match. I guess you get a bit starved of cricket up here in the northern suburbs... There were some bunglin' Bangla fans in the restaurant we ended up in, and some Americans who were asking lots of questions cause cricket looks a bit like baseball only way cooler. The build up to this game was quite intense, despite the disparity of team skill. Bangladesh bowled India out for less than 200 last week, and batted well enough to secure a narrow victory.

In something that cannot be described as a repeat of that performance, the highlight of the first 50 overs was probably the toss, whereupon Bangladesh elected to field (an odd choice, unless they just wanted to give their bowlers a bit more practice by ensuring they bowled a full 50 overs, which could actually be a beneficial tactic at this stage of the competition). The second highlight was when Jayawardene hurt his finger fending off a big bouncer, whereupon the Sri Lankan physio gave said finger a nice little massage and wrapped it in a crepe bandage. A few overs later, after some rain (the third highlight) he retired hurt (presumably due to the finger incident). The fourth highlight was when he returned towards the end of the innings and made a further 20 runs in very quick time.

Some of the bowling looked quite good from where we were sitting, but you can't argue with the scoreboard (318/4). My prediction for Bangladesh's innings... 187/10 off 46.5 overs. Jeesh! they're already 7/2... may have to revise.

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Hmm, yep... 112/10 off 37. There are now 2 games left in group B - Bangladesh vs Bermuda (should be an easy win for Bangladesh), and Sri Lanka vs India. If Sri Lanka beat India, Bangladesh will go through to the super eights where they will play Australia, South Africa, England, Ireland, New Zealand and the West Indies.