While beating Bangladesh is not the height of cricketing achievement (it ranks just about level with making a catch in county cricket), it's still something to be positive about. And even with a couple of passengers, England still won so comfortably that I didn't even bother to watch most of it. But there still are some things to be taken out of the game which will give new captain Cook and Andy Flower some heart.
To start - Alastair Cook's first game as captain (that he was expecting to be captain for). He did well. He made good bowling changes, set good fields. While it was hardly a pressure situation, Cook seemed to captain OK. And that's just fine. His batting was fantastic - even when he decided that he didn't need the help of opening partner Kieswetter, who spent his the start of his first international innings looking around and watching as Cook faced the first 18 balls.
Cook looked like he was going to be England's best batsman, until his vice-captain Collingwood came to the crease. Colly was superb, knowing when to block and also knowing when to accelerate. Showing all of his class and experience, his unbeaten 75 won the game without much panic.
Honourable mention goes to Matt Prior. While Cheese came in at a stage where the game was absolutely dead and buried, he showed why he is in the team (and is keeping the gloves) despite the new presence of Kieswetter. Morgan also batted well by keeping the rate ticking over (almost making up for his earlier drop of Tamim Iqbal).
It would be selfish to ignore the 125 of Iqbal in this blog. A great array of shots were seen, against a not-bad English bowling line up. It just goes to show that Bangladesh are not the fools that they have been assumed to be, and that if there are a couple more players with the ability of Iqbal, they could cause a few shocks in world cricket (maybe). One of their spinners wasn't bad, but don't ask me who, as they used 13 in total, all of whom blended into one.
Overall, England should be fairly pleased. But pleased like finding 10p down the sofa, not Ashes pleased.
haha, like finding 10p down the sofa.... Il hav u know i get very excited by that sort of thing!
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