Cricket:Siddons thinking big

It may be easy for someone to say what would happen in the one-day series between Bangladesh and South Africa when the two sides get involved in the first match of the three-match series at Potchefstroom's Senwes Park today if one considers the past records.

Because it is all but one-sided affairs whenever the two sides met previously except the Tigers' glorious victory in the second round of last year's World Cup in West Indies.

Mohammad Ashraful's men could add another feather in their cap if they didn't let down the chances in the tour opening Twenty20 international at the New Wanderers here on Wednesday.

The spirited display however gave the Tigers courage to turn the table this time from the disappointing first trip in 2002 despite the fact that they have been caught in a vicious circle of lost opportunities in the last few months.

“We are looking for big things,” said Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons yesterday prior to the first one-day international, adding that it was exciting the way his side pushed the big teams in recent times.

The Australian was disappointed by his team's batting but very much satisfied with the way his side was competitive in the last two series, against Australia and New Zealand, and said that this young side is even capable of winning the series against South Africa. But the pre-condition is the top four batsmen need to do their jobs.

“Anything can happen in the series. Watching their (South African) batsmen against our spin bowlers I can say that we have the ability to worry them but again the batsmen have to do their job. There are bowlers like Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel but we faced quality bowlers against New Zealand,” he observed.

“Maybe we could not finish the game in our way but I am really happy because now we reach positions to win the matches. Bowlers are doing their job and some batsmen are working very hard. It's fantastic to see that we put pressure on our opponents,” he added.

Siddons didn't hide his frustration on the way his skipper and Tamim Iqbal got out in the Twenty20 to let down a great opportunity to get off to a winning start in the series.

He also raised questions whether his batsmen could understand his message or not.

“Again I am very disappointed because the batsmen continued to let down the chances. I am not sure whether my message is not getting through. They were asked to play cricket shots but they did not do that. Ash (Mohammad Ashraful) and Tamim (Iqbal) got out by playing bad shots and frustratingly we had two run outs,” said Siddons.

Ashraful however was focused on their performance as a team and said that they may lose close matches because of a lack of experience.

“We were very close to win matches in the last few series and I think it's a good sign for our cricket," said Ashraful.

"This is a very young team and I think the team is shaping to win matches on a regular basis,” said Ashraful, who was blamed for being aggressive in the Twenty20 match when the requirement was of a responsible knock with the run-rate within reach.

“We have to learn how to finish the game. That's it,” he added.

He has also an example of the Sri Lankan team who started to win matches on a regular basis after losing so many close matches. And it was reminded by none but the match referee Roshan Mahanama, the former Sri Lanka captain, to a Bangladesh team management official.