A photo from the media room of the Sophia Gardens Cricket Ground in Cardiff Dhaka Tribune/Ali Shahriyar Amin
Will Bangladesh bring more glory and script a few more memorable chapters in Cardiff? Only time will tell
Sophia Gardens Cricket Ground has a special place in Bangladesh cricket history as two of the greatest wins of the Bangladesh team have come at this venue.
The first one came in 2005, probably one of the greatest moments in our cricket history as Bangladesh defeated the then world champion, mighty Australia. Mohammad Ashraful made an outstanding century in that match.
Many small moments of that match went down in the cricketing folklore of Bangladesh.
I can remember the entire match, but particularly some may be recalled, like Ashraful’s brilliant strokemaking, Ashraful and former captain Habibul Bashar’s partnership, Aftab Ahmed’s crucial sixes over mid-wicket against Australia pacer Jason Gillespie, and obviously, that wining moment.
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Bashar is here with the team as a selector of the national team. While walking on the field, he must have reminisced the historic win against Australia.
The Tigers’ second famous win came at this ground two years ago. It was a Champions Trophy match, a virtual quarter-final against New Zealand.
Bangladesh were struggling after losing four wickets for 33 runs in 12 overs while chasing 266 for victory. The Kiwi pacers were dominating at that point, but then Shakib al Hasan and Mahmudullah batted brilliantly and scripted a stunning comeback to snatch the win as the Tigers qualified for the semi-final.
Both of them scored centuries as Shakib scored 114 and Mahmudullah was unbeaten on 102.
“We feel happy when we see this ground because we have a very good record here. We defeated Australia at this very ground in 2005, and in the Champions Trophy we beat New Zealand here too. We feel good and confident when we see this ground. Even so, everyone will have to play well and work hard, and win the match playing good cricket,” said all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz during their practice session in Cardiff Saturday.
Bangladesh have two warm-up matches in Cardiff against Pakistan and India, scheduled to be held Sunday and Tuesday respectively. They will also play against host England on June 8 at this venue.
“Obviously, we will get a lot of confidence if we can win the match. We are not thinking of it as a practice match. Our thinking is that we have to win one match after the other. In the game against Pakistan, we will try to put forth our best and Inshallah we will have to win the match, because then our confidence will be high. In the last tri-nation ODI series, we played well and if we can continue that, it will be good,” Miraz added.
Will Bangladesh bring more glory and script a few more memorable chapters in Cardiff? Only time will tell.
