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In the backdrop of garish costumes, colorful outfits and baking English bodies, while the Barmy Army chants were heard from a mile and the echoes of Kumbaya and Rule Britannia where adding the flair to the game, Bengali tigers once again ditched the expectations of their emotional fans.

If one has just return from the trip to the moon and wasn’t aware of the building up of events of world cup to this match, he would be surprised at the glee of English fans over their win at the underdogs Bangladesh. The facts that England beat Bangladesh after struggling a lot in their batting and the ghosts of India and South Africa were also looming large in the back of their minds justified the relief on the faces of Englishmen after the match ended.

After getting rid of mercurial and youthful Bangladeshis for the a meager target of 144 runs, it was natural that it would be a matter of time, before England bagged another easy success, but as it is with the un-predictability of  nature, it wasn’t as easy. Andrew Strauss and Captain Michael Vaughan were cagey and were looking in a desperate effort to regain their elusive form. Though Strauss did try to show his aggression, but he didn’t last for long. Vaughan again plodded and after a toil in the middle top-edged a ball from Abdul Razzaq and went back to his hut.

If you look at the top 4 English batsmen, their dismissals, their runs and their approach, you would think that perhaps another upset is in the offing. Bell for 0, Vaughan for 30, Strauss for 23 and Kevin Pietersen for 10. The meek batting display carried on and Paul Collingwood again budged and scored just 23 runs. If the target weren’t so cheap, England had done all the things to drown them deep in the sea. Self destruction by England were aggravated when Mohammad Rafique pulled a stunner by evicting two quick wickets. Flintoff was the first to depart and Ravi Bopara followed the suit immediately. At 110 for 6 with 34 still needed, Bangladesh again started dreaming for their yet another win.

After much plodding, scratching and screaming, Collingwood and Paul Nixon hardly managed to get England overboard. Though some overs and some wickets were still at hand, while England secured the match, the overall display with bat from them rang the danger bells for them in the forth coming tough matches.

Earlier, Bengali tigers seemed off-colors and were proved paper tigers in front of Sajid Mahmood, Monty Paneser and Anderson. The only notable batsman was Saqibul Hasan who scored 56 runs on 95 balls, rest was just in shambles and there is nothing to write home about them. Bangladesh has pulled some stunning surprise wins and has played some good cricket, but still they are the underdogs and they have got to go a long way.