A sense of deja vu for England and Bangladesh

England and Bangladesh have obviously played each other too often over the last few months, as it is all becoming rather predictable now.

The first match of the one day series at Trent Bridge confirmed a number of observations made since the sides first faced each other in Bangladesh in February. The sense of deja vu is overwhelming.

1. England are running a bit scared of Tamim Iqbal and set negative fields far too early to the swashbuckling opener.
2. James Anderson is wasting the new ball on an alarmingly regular basis.
3. Tim Bresnan is a wholehearted trier, but a test or ODI opening bowler he is not. Two late wickets does not hide the fact that after Bresnan's one for 255 series against Australia, Ryan Sidebottom or Ajmal Shahzad deserve a run out.
4. Bangladesh lose momentum as soon as Tamim Iqbal is out.
5. It doesn't matter how good a position Bangladesh get themselves into, they will always find a banana skin to slip over. The 250 they scored yesterday was at least 40-50 runs below a par score.
6. Ian Bell likes playing against Bangladesh. By the end of this series his one day average may even surpass his test average against the toothless Tigers.
7. Bangladesh's seam bowling is on a par with a county 2nd XI attack.
8. Cricket is a game of two sides, but when England and Bangladesh play the former always wins comfortably (with the only doubt being when Tamim Iqbal is at the wicket).

We can't wait for the next two matches at Bristol and Edgbaston. Can you guess what is going to happen?

Comments

[The Reverse Sweep]

It would seem I may have been a bit premature here with England needing 70 from 10 overs in the 2nd match with only two wickets left...