Another loss, but it's okay

Sometimes, I wish I could have written out Bangladesh's fate at Lords. Then, they would have gotten 200+ and put England to bat with 20 overs left in the day. England, being recent World T20 Champs would have very much believed that this was possible and set out in an attacking manner. They would have lost a few wickets on the way and resign to playing for a draw, as per English customs.

Alas, I was fast asleep on Day 5 (the match starts at 5am here!) and so Bangladesh recoiled to Steven Finn for the second time. I now find it my moral obligation to dislike Finn. I hope he gets chosen for the Ashes and the Aussies end his career.
No I don't. I hope the Aussies end Graeme Swann's career, who by the way, for the first time in eons, had zero wickets in a test. I knew this would happen the minute he won the ECB player of the year award. But anyway, he can go to hell and Steven Finn can suffer a little for being so good against Bangladesh.

All is not lost however. I think for the first time, Bangladesh impressed millions around the world who doubted their test status. The skeptics are still not full converts but they are getting there. A big part of it is because of the two names that made it to the historical Honours Board at Lords. Shahadat shocked me, but I had no doubt about Tamim's ability to make his country proud. When I look at the names on the lists, I can't help but get ahead of myself and dream of a test team that is feared, the team to beat, be respected and even be the number one team in the world.

Don't laugh at me. They may have crumbled on three days out of five but they are doing something astonishing: fighting as a team...batting as a team. Sure, it's usually one half or the other but it's slowly coming together, just when people had started giving up on them. Plus, have you noticed we have a test team now?

AND, they two of them just made history.

Steven Finn

I am about to make yet another traitorous confession: I like Steven Finn. And not because I foresee him crumbling under the pressure of being a frontline English pace bowler. I genuinely like him.

The fact that I also like Jimmy Anderson might have already told you that I have a thing for quality pace bowlers. Jimmy isn't always that fast, but I remember when he first came to the scene people were more excited about his looks and Beckhamish hair than his bowling. He didn't live upto the hype of course but then he learned to swing the ball and all of a sudden Jimmy was a new bowler. I like the fact that he failed, learned his lesson and came back with a bang.

Steven Finn is the man of the hour so I'm pretty sure I don't have to repeat his heroics from the last two days. I saw him bowl and I was pretty impressed with his ability to make the batsman play. Of course this is Division Two so I find all this excitement surrounding him and the Ashes a bit premature. However, he did pretty okay against Bangladesh. Took wickets, had a decent economic rate...basically fulfilled his duties as a backup bowler. But the Aussies are pretty pissed at the Poms so they may just kill the newbie. And that can't be good. Specially for me, since I am rarely excited about English pace bowlers.   

But so far, I like Steven Finn only for his bowling as he is yet to screw up as per Pommie tradition and make a comeback. Which means, I don't like him that much. Just the right amount for me to not bitch about him like I do about Broad. No wait, I bitch about Broad because I really dislike him and he is not a bowler.

This is confusing.

Let's just leave it at, I like Steven Finn. Fullstop.