da apostaganha： Neither team has one Champions Trophy game so far but it’s a stat thatwill mostly be altered. There’s no sign of rain in the air and in caseit’s a tie, we’d have probably had the best match of the tournament fromtwo teams on their way back home.
The Preview by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Jaipur12-Oct-2006
Will Prosper Utseya and his mates replicate their recent triumph against Bangladesh? © Getty Images
Everyone’s been talking about England v Australia on October 21 as aprelude to the much-hyped Ashes but hang on a moment. Let’s first getstuck into what promises to be the first real competitive match of theChampions Trophy, a prelude to Zimbawbe’s tour to Bangladesh in earlyNovember. It’s no doubt a basement battle but both teams are eager for apsychological point, or three.Bangladesh’s recent tour to Zimbabwe was a mini-disaster. They went down3-2 in the five-match one-day series and speculation was rife aboutinternal friction. For a team that’s occasionally stood up to challengetop-quality opposition like Australia, India and Sri Lanka, it came as arude shock to be felled by an unheralded bunch. Habibul Bashar, who wasruled out of the latter part of the series owing to a finger injury,termed it as one of the most disappointing results of his career. He’smade no bones about the fact that it was make-or-break time forBangladesh.Having gone in with an unchanged side for the opening two games – whenthey surrendered to Sri Lanka and West Indies – Bangladesh are likely tomake a couple of changes to their squad. Mohammad Ashraful, who hasn’tcome off after being pushed up the order, and Syed Rasel, the left-armseamer, are likely to face the chop. Likely to come in their place areRajin Saleh and Mehrab Hossain, who’s yet to make his international debut.Zimbabwe too have had a bagful of batting worries – none of their batsmenhas yet crossed 30. Yet, faced against a lesser-quality bowling attack,the likes of Brendon Taylor and Stuart Matsikenyeri are well capable ofthe big ones. Unlike Bangladesh, who have an array of left-arm spinners tocall upon, Zimbabwe might rely primarily on their medium-pacers – Gary Brent has been approved as a replacement for Terrance Duffin who has flown home ill – and it’s afact that might work to their favour later in the evening. Chris Gayle,who motored to a century yesterday, admitted that batting under lightshadn’t been easy, with the pitch tending to keep a bit low and the ballmoving around disconcertingly.Neither team has one Champions Trophy game so far but it’s a stat thatwill mostly be altered. There’s no sign of rain in the air and in caseit’s a tie, we’d have probably had the best match of the tournament fromtwo teams on their way back home.Bangladesh (likely) 1 Shahriar Nafees, 2 Rajin Saleh, 3 AftabAhmed, 4 Habibul Bashar (capt), 5 Farhad Reza, 6 Saqibul Hasan, 7 KhaledMashud (wk), 8 Mohammad Rafique, 9 Abdur Razzaq, 10 Mashrafe Mortaza, 11Mehrab Hossain jnr.Zimbabwe (from) 1 Prosper Utseya (capt), 2 Gary Brent, 3 ChamuChibhabha, 4 Elton Chigumbura, 5 Anthony Ireland, 6 Tafadzwa Kamungozi, 7Hamilton Masakadza, 8 Stuart Matsikenyeri, 9 Tafadzwa Mufambisi, 10 TawandaMupariwa, 11 Ed Rainsford, 12 Piet Rinke, 13 Gregory Strydom, 14 BrendanTaylor