New Zealand A vs Bangladesh A Match #2 Recap
Two Phillips'?!
At least we were briefly in this game. Make no mistake, those moments were few and far between, as Bangladesh A cruised to a comfortable 87-run victory after scoring 344 and consigning New Zealand A (NZA) to 5/116 within 20 overs. However, for the first 15 overs of each innings, it was a contest, which is better than you could say of the first outing. Baby steps. After 15.1 overs in the first innings, it was an even contest at 3/97, while in reply NZA were momentarily in the hunt at 1/99 after 14.1 overs with Dale Phillips flying (please find an opportunity to play him Glenn in the same side, we deserve it). Considering NZA was never even competitive in the first match, being in the hunt for 30% of this game is a positive development. 30% might even be harsh, as the spin department also fared solidly, while the lower-order batting was decent, with Clarkson, Hay, and Clarke contributing a trio of quick-fire 30s.
At the toss, NZA proved two things:
They learned a lesson from the first game, winning and electing to field.
They are more concerned with development than results on this tour, making four changes to the XI from the opening match to ensure all of the 15-man squad has had a game.
Namely, the two best batters from the first match, Mariu and Foxcroft, were left out for Heaphy and Ashok respectively, while Carter replaced Abbas in the middle order, and Foulkes got a go with the new ball over Lister. Leaving out Mariu and Foxcroft indicated that they wanted to prioritise giving everyone a decent run in the middle over winning. Given that Mariu and Foxcroft had already had one, they missed out. My best guess is that Phillips, Boyle, Clarkson, and Clarke will rotate out for the next match, leaving everyone except Kelly, Hay, and Lennox having played two of the three games.
With the ball, things started rather tidily, with Foulkes and Clarke both conceding five runs off their opening overs and just one off their second. That included Clarke snaring Emon caught at slip to a peach of a delivery, which angled in to draw the shot before moving away to take the edge. At the other end, Foulkes bowled several sharp, threatening bouncers, hitting Bangladeshi batters on the helmet on several occasions.
Unfortunately, that early control was brief, with both the bowlers struggling to maintain consistent pressure once the movement disappeared. To give a harsh assessment, Clarke doesn’t look like an international-quality bowler at this stage of his development. I don’t know what speeds he was bowling, but at one point, the on-screen chyron described him as “slow-medium,” a vicious attack from which his ego might never recover, but not entirely inaccurate, from what I can tell. To put it bluntly, once the ball stopped moving, the batters seemed to have oodles of time against him.
At the other end, Foulkes certainly hurried the batsmen more with his bouncers but over-relied on the short ball, and struggled with his front foot, delivering four no-balls. I thought he was guilty of going searching and bowling “two lengths”, rather than settling in on a good length. Both new ball bowlers ultimately picked up consolation wickets at the death, dismissing Bangladesh A’s two century-makers caught in the outfield chasing quick runs.
Clarkson was the other seamer used, returning putrid figures of 0/76 off nine overs. The less said about Clarkson’s bowling, the better. It is not international quality as a front-line option. Clarkson struggled to adjust to a left-right batting partnership for Bangladesh A, delivering five wides and several other misdirected balls, while also looking like he’d offer up at least one boundary ball an over. He could be useful as a sixth/seventh bowler in helpful conditions, or as an occasional matchup option in T20s, but should never be relied on to deliver a full quota of overs. If you haven’t seen Clarkson bowl, think Daryl Mitchell. Think Scott Styris. Think Craig McMillan. Nice to have as a bonus if you’re desperate, but no more. Enough said.
On the other hand, NZA’s spinners were more threatening while also keeping things tight. Well, Lennox and Ashok were. Dale Phillips also got three overs of off-spin that is somehow even more part-time than his brother’s, which were duly taken for 23 runs. He delivered the nudest of nude nuts, little UFOs that barely rotated in flight, and could easily be mistaken for being delivered by a 58-year-old Third Grade legend. If you couldn’t already tell, my assessment of Phillips’ bowling is much the same as Clarkson’s. Pass.
Lennox was the pick of the bowlers, delivering very tidy figures of ten overs 0/50. That could have been even better, but he ruined his figures a touch late. After 8.3 overs, Lennox had only conceded 25 runs, before he dropped a sharp caught and bowled chance. In a classic move from the Cricket Gods, he was punished for it with a four and a six before conceding 15 in his final over. However, for the majority of his spell, Lennox was difficult to get away. His main trick was darting the ball into the pads and starving the batters of any room to free their arms, and it broadly worked a treat. Lennox has impressed so far in a containing role, though he would love to snare a few wickets in the coming games as a deserved reward.
At the other end, I loved watching Adi Ashok bowl. The leg-spinniest leg spinner to ever bowl leg spin, you might get licorice allsorts from Ashok, but my god will it be worth it. To that end, he struggled to land the ball early on, delivering three full tosses in his first four balls, and a few more in his second over. His sixth ball was a half-volley that was swept for four. His eighth was a drag-down that conceded five wides. In between times, though, Ashok’s fourth ball was a peach which pitched on a sixth stump line to the left-hander and spun viciously back through the gate, unlucky to miss the stumps. Throughout his spell, he delivered three more utter gems like this which were unfortunate not to get wickets, both with the leg spinner to the left-hander and the wrong’un to the right-hander. His seventh ball was a wicket, with Naim hitting an off-stump half-volley straight down long off’s throat. Not his best ball, but isn’t that the magic of cricket’s most beguiling art? After those shaky first two overs, Ashok landed the ball much better throughout the rest of his spell, so he will want to work on starting better in future outings. As a 22-year-old leggie, he still looks a bit raw for the international arena, but the talent is obvious and his best delivery is absolutely a wicket-taking threat, which is always a good sign in a young bowler.
Before Ashok’s wicket, Anamul Haque was dismissed in a calamitous runout, but once Ankon and Hasan got together, they never ceded control, progressively working through the gears to each score centuries, before going crazy, taking 102 runs off the last 11 overs to lead Bangladesh A to 344.
In reply, NZA got off to a watchful start, finding themselves 0/12 after four overs, before Dale Phillips cut loose. After starting slowly, scoring 7 (15), Phillips then went ballistic, scoring 72 off his next 39 balls. He was utterly dominant through the covers, scoring 38 of his 79 runs through that region, including nine of his 14 boundaries. Phillips was timing the ball incredibly while also hitting the gaps, with seemingly every ball he hit through the covers finding its way to the boundary. He interspersed this with some real creativity, including a flick over his head for six, with his other six coming over long-on. Just as Phillips was getting on a serious roll, Mossadek put the brakes on just enough to draw a false shot. After hitting his first two balls against Mosaddek to the boundary, he scored just three off his next six from the spinner, including two dots to end the 14th over. That drew a rash shot the next ball Phillips faced against Islam, with Phillips trying to pull a ball that wasn’t quite there, and instead lobbing a soft catch to mid-on.
Shortly before that, Mosaddek had dismissed Heaphy, who looked utterly clueless against spin. To give Heaphy some credit, he looked solid enough against the new ball seamers, which is more than we could say last game, but failed to lay bat on ball to Mossadek’s first three deliveries. He finally hit the fourth, but only enough to feather an edge behind, dismissed for 5 (16).
Boyle came and went shortly after Phillips’ for just 1 (6), looking equally clueless against spin. Boyle at least got off the mark this time, having been dismissed for a duck in the previous match, but that was as far as he got. Like Heaphy, Boyle looked clueless against the two balls of spin he faced. He tried to cut the first delivery and nearly chipped it straight to third man, then, the following delivery, he again tried to cut, going back to a ball that he should have come forward to. Not only that, but he was also late on the ball and lost his middle stump in the process. Boyle has twice been late on the ball and paid the price now, and has yet to look comfortable on this tour. Hopefully, he will learn a lot from these two failures, with a bright future still ahead of him.
From then on, things happened quickly. Carter made the same error as Boyle, going back to cut a ball he should have come forward to and chopping it on to be dismissed for 13 (22). Next, Kelly’s dismissal was the worst of the lot, leaving a ball that he expected to turn but instead slid straight on, losing his off stump. By this point, 5/116 20 overs into the innings, the game was effectively over, although the lower order fought on, contributing some handy runs. Clarkson hit a breezy 34 (31), peppering the square leg region with several boundaries, before making the same error as Boyle and Carter, going back to cut Tanvir Islam and losing his middle stump. If the crux of our post-match batting debrief wasn’t “stop going back and trying to cut their spinners off the stumps”, then something has gone badly wrong.
Hay also looked good for his 38 (44), hitting sixes over midwicket and long-off, before getting caught at long-on trying to hit out. I thought Hay looked in control at the crease, and with the match well and truly lost, you can’t really hold his dismissal against him trying to chase quick runs. Kristian Clarke then managed to delay the inevitable slightly longer, smashing 39* (36) to offer a glimpse of his batting talent, including hitting four consecutive boundaries off Raja. However, two overs later, Lennox tried to reverse sweep Hossain but instead hit the ball straight to point, securing an 87-run victory for Bangladesh A, with NZA bowled out after 43.1 overs.
As mentioned, it was a better outing overall than the first game with more positives (namely, Phillips, Ashok, Lennox, and Hay), though that isn’t a high bar to clear. Equally, the batters should have learned a clear lesson from their failures against spin: stop trying to cut these fast, darting spinners off the stumps. We’ve seen two batters make 70s in the opening two matches, with several more 30s and 40s, while our spinners have been solid in both games, and Foulkes even showed fleeting glimpses. Let’s hope they can all put it together at once in the final List A outing on Saturday, or, at least, for more than 30% of the game. If they could bat the full 50 overs, that’d be a start…