The contribution of Bangladesh to world cricket is notable enough. Their rise in international cricket is historic. Bangladesh first cricket World Cup match was also a dream match for the local cricketers. They played the first match at the County Ground in Chelmsford, England.
Bangladesh in their first World Cup:
The Bangladesh cricket team has appeared in every Cricket World Cup since 1999 as an associate team mainly held in England. For the first time, Bangladesh participated in Cricket World Cup in this edition as an associate member and was placed in Group B. Bangladesh first cricket World Cup match was against New Zealand. The match was played at County Ground in Chelmsford, and they eventually lost the match by six wickets, being bundled out for just mere 116 runs in the first innings. They also lost their second group match against West Indies by seven wickets.
The county ground is the Essex County Ground (ECG) in England. The first match on this field was played in 1925, a first-class cricket match. This stadium has a capacity of almost 6,500 spectators, mostly in single-tier seating with a single double-tier stand. However, the pavilion was built after 1960.
The match summary:
First innings:
New Zealand won the toss and selected to ball first. Bangladesh got the chance to bat first. Shahriar Hossain and Mehrab Hossain were the two Bangladeshi opening batters. The first over was bowled by Geoff Allott from New Zealand’s end. The Bangladeshi openers were unable to stay on the pitch longer. Geoff Allot picked both wickets through LBW. Akram Khan went in at the first down of the wicket. He made 16 runs from 33 balls. He played two boundaries, and his strike rate was around 48.48.
Bangladeshi skipper Aminul Islam went to the pitch and stayed a while. He made 15 runs in 41 balls. Unfortunately, he got picked by Kiwi bowler Chris Cairns when he had already spent 43 minutes on the pitch. Then Khaled Mashud came but also, but he could only contribute up to four runs from 15 balls. Naimur Rahman came and made the second-highest run among all 11 batters in Bangladesh’s first World Cup match against New Zealand. He could make 18 runs from 51 balls. It could have been good innings for him unless Gavin Larsen picked the wicket.
Khaled Mahmud and Md Rafique came into the field with a bat but could not succeed on the pitch. Enamul Haque played a better inning on the pitch than the other fellow Bangladeshi players that day. He spent almost 1 hour on the pitch with a run of 19 from 41 balls. 34th over it was, and the batter was playing the last ball of the over. Suddenly the ball got a spin and hit the off stump of Enamul. Chris Harris picked the wicket, and the scoreboard was 96/9. However, the last two batters got stuck with 16 and 6 runs. Thus, Bangladesh finished their batting, and now it was their turn to the ball.
Second innings:
From the beginning of the second innings, New Zealand batters were looking confident as chasing 117 runs was not tough for them. It was Matt Horne, who made the highest 35 runs in the match, who was the opener duo with Nathan Astle. Horne played for a long time, but finally, Naimur Rahman picked his wicket when the 30th over was running, and the match was about to collapse.
Craig MacMillan went on the pitch after falling the first wicket. Craig made 20 runs from 26 balls. He had a good stick rate of 76.92. He spent almost 34 minutes on the pitch unless Naimur took the catch in Hasibul Hossain’s over. Skipper Stephen Flemming went onto the pitch and made 16 runs from 33 balls. His wicket was also picked by Md Rafique when 23.2 over was running. Kipper Khaled Mashud took the brilliant catch from behind the stumps. Still, it was too late, and New Zealand had already made the match in their favour.
Bangladesh’s first World Cup match was memorable as 4 of the six bowlers picked their first international World Cup wickets. Hasibul Hossain, Manjurul Islam, Mohammad Rafique, and Naimur Rahman are the names of those four bowlers. The bowling lineup was good on Bangladesh’s side. Naimur Rahman had a good match as he picked a wicked just against five runs in 2 overs.
Last line:
Although New Zealand won, it was a great day and memorable for Bangladesh’s first World Cup match in history.
