From rxpgnews.com
Speedster Mortaza underplays his first-ball wicket
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS,
May 18, 2007 - 9:24:17 PM
Chittagong, May 18 - Bangladesh speedster Mashrafe Mortaza may have taken a wicket off the first ball in the first Test against India here Friday, but he described the pitch as a flat one.
'A bowler tries to take a wicket with every ball. The first ball I wanted to hit the right place. I also tried to bring it in to surprise the batsman,' said the man who bowled opener Wasim Jaffer off the first ball at Bir Shrestha Shahid Ruhul Amin Stadium.
The right-handed Jaffer had left the ball thinking it would miss the stumps. But it came in to surprise him.
'The wicket was absolutely flat and difficult to bowl on. Sachin - and Sourav - are playing very carefully. They are giving very little chance. So it's difficult to bowl to them now,' said Mortaza, the most successful bowler with two wickets.
Tendulkar and Ganguly are batting on 80 and 82 respectively and have so far added 163 off 263 balls for the fourth wicket and India finished at 295 for three wickets.
Mortaza described India's batting line-up one of the strongest in the world.
'It is difficult to bowl at them. They are two of the greatest players in the world. They have huge number of runs in Test cricket and it's very difficult to bowl at them on these flat tracks,' he said.
'So, I have to bowl at the right areas and hope. It is very difficult to say how soon we can get them out and on what score. The job at hand will be to keep them from scoring freely,' he said, adding that the conditions were hot and humid.
Does he think Bangladesh have lost the chance of coming back into the match?
'No. We have time tomorrow morning. If we can take a few quick wickets tomorrow it could be different,' he hoped.
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