Tigers ace battle of inside knowledge
While Tamim Iqbal led the early charge, it was an all-round performance both with the bat and ball from the Tigers that helped them register their biggest ever ODI victory in the 163-run drubbing of Sri Lanka in Mirpur yesterday. Photo: Firoz Ahmed
Leading up to what has virtually become a grudge match in the eyes of many home fans, chiefly because of the presence of former Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha in the opposition camp, the talk has mostly been about the advantage that the Sri Lankans will have because of their coach's insights into the Bangladesh team. Bangladesh technical director Khaled Mahmud, who stepped into the breach after Hathurusingha's sudden resignation last October, said that it was a two-way street -- the hosts also had a fairly good idea about the way the Sri Lankan's mind worked.
On the evidence of the Tigers' 163-run win yesterday, their inside knowledge trumped their former coach's. The first evidence of it was the decision at the toss to bat first. Sri Lanka had won the toss and fielded first in their first tri-series match against Zimbabwe, presumably because Hathurusingha knew about the dew factor that would handicap the spinners at night. The Tigers seemed to anticipate this decision and took luck out of the equation, picking a fourth seamer in Mohammad Saifuddin and choosing to bat first – a decision that paid dividends in their clinical defence of 320 for seven.
