Warming up a li'l more...

© AFP - "That's out !" - Simon Taufel raises his finger against the appeal of Bangladesh's Abdur Razzak, in their match against Scotland on Thursday.

As we entered the second stage of warm-up matches, it was the opportunity for minnows to prove their mettle... After having experienced the pleasure of playing against the top teams in the world, they now went out to settle it between themselves - Where we had the bottom 8 teams fighting against one another. They would have seen these matches as much more competitive, and hence each one would have given their best... Let's capture how the action unfolded on 8th March, 2007...

Bermuda vs Zimbabwe
Result : Zimbabwe won by 6 wickets
Brief Scores :
BER : 136 (50 overs)
JJ Tucker 56, AJ Ireland 3-22, KM Dabengwa 2-5
ZIM : 137/4 (29 overs)
SC Williams 72*, CJ Chibhabha 30, RDM Leverock 2-54

Zimbabwe would definitely have been favourites for this encounter - assuming that they have had much more experience of one-day cricket than Bermuda. After restricting Bermuda to a very modest 136, Zimbabwe made a shaky start... They lost two early wickets, but Sean Williams made sure that there were no further hiccups... And they posted a comfortable 6-wicket win !

Canada vs Ireland
Result : Ireland won by 7 wickets
Brief Scores :
CAN : 115 (32.5 overs)
GEF Barnett 27, Extras 24, D Langford-Smith 4-41, WK McCallan 2-0
IRE : 116/3 (26.5 overs)
JP Bray 41*, AC Botha 22*, AM Samad 1-11

Ireland won the toss, and put Canada in... And did they do a good job of it !! Canada could only manage a meagre 115, not even getting close to completing their alloted 50 overs... Ireland looked comfortable from the start, with JP Bray leading the Irish fightback. He was the main anchor, and remained unbeaten on 41, as Ireland posted an easy win over Canada.

Bangladesh vs. Scotland
Result : Bangladesh won by 7 wickets
Brief Scores :
SCO : 152/9 (50 overs)
NS Poonia 32(34), DF Watts 28(57), Abdur Razzak 3-25, M Rafique 2-16
BAN : 156-3 (34.1 overs)
H Bashar 57*(87), S Hasan 45(55), PJC Hoffman 1-19

No points for guessing who were the favourites for this one... After their confidence-boosting win over New Zealand, Bangladesh would be feeling on top of the world before going into this match. Scotland would have been an easy opposition for them, as this match proved exactly that ! Scotland were dismissed for 152 with Razzak and Rafique leading the Bangladeshi attack... 153 was never going to be a touch target for Bangladesh, considering the experience thay have now had in international cricket. They reached their target in under 35 overs, with captain Habibul Bashar leading the charge with an unbeaten 57.

Kenya vs. The Netherlands
Result : Kenya won by 9 runs
Brief Scores :
KEN : 274/8 (50 overs)
TM Odoyo 73, SO Tikolo 51, AO Suji 47, DLS van Bunge 3-41
HOL : 265/9 (50 overs)
DJ Reekers 75, B Zuiderent 65, SO Tikolo 5-48

Easily the closest match of the day, Kenya and Holland battled it out till the last few overs. The only match that resulted in a total of 200+ on that day... Kenya posted a very decent 274 in their alloted 50 overs, thanks to a half-century by captain Steve Tikolo, and a very significant 73 by Odoyo. A target of 275 would have been near-impossible for Holland, but they delivered a very impressive performance. An opening stand of 142 (in 29 overs) set them as front runners in the race... Even at 256-4 they would have been the favourites... But the next 2.2 overs only saw them making 8 runs, for the loss of 4 wickets, which really darkened their chances of beating Kenya... But nevertheless, Holland should be in a position to take many positives from this game, and they should look a more confident side post this one !

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All in all, a great day for cricket, with 4 matches played between the not-so-great teams... But the cricket played was definitely good !! Bangladesh continued to prove their supremacy, with a 2-on-2 from their warm-up matches, one against the biggies New Zealand... Although the matches against the minnows might look easy to other teams, you never know when we can see a turnaround :)