Bangladesh certainly won a lot of friends with a tiger-like display against Australia in the First Test, but while they showed admirable tenacity right unto the death, the plain fact is that they lacked one critical attribute that is vital for both tigers and cricket teams; the killer instinct. Cricinfo's Osman Samiuddin put the question squarely:

Even if we accept that Australia were tired - this was their 11th Test since October - five days ago nobody expected them to nervously chase just under a hundred on the last day with five wickets in hand. Five days ago, most expected the last day to be a day off. In this context alone, the performance is remarkable. But while everyone celebrates, Bangladesh might choose some serious contemplation instead. Should Bangladesh be happy they pushed Australia so close? Or should they grumble about having missed the opportunity to win it?

Instead of patronising Bangladesh by praising how well they played, we owe it to them to take them seriously, and give them a bollocking for NOT finishing Australia off.

Ricky Ponting gets a lot of stick for his captaincy, but even still, since he took charge in early 2004, Australia have lost three Test matches. You do not get a chance to beat Australia very often, so when the Cricket fates send you an opportunity, you have to take it. That is what England did in 2005 to win the Ashes. How long will Bangladesh have to wait before they get a better chance then this to beat Australia. I imagine it will be quite a while, and they will rue this missed opportunity for a long time to come.

How long will Bangladesh have to wait before they have another crack at Australia? Give it 5 years or so, when the Bangla players get some experience and make the most of their talent. And imagine who Australia will be fielding! An ageing Ricky Ponting (his purple patch will be over by then). Shane Watson. Cameron White. The future of Australian cricket looks bleak. Until then, let Bangladesh rack up the victories against WI, Zimbabwe and SL; based on what I've seen, they're better than all of them already.

You're right Scott, Bangladesh should no doubt be pleased they were able to prove their critics wrong and put up a good fight but they should be at the same time dissapointed that some of their players don't learn from their mistakes as quickly as they ought to. Their habit of collapsing meekly in the 2nd innings has become a far too dangerous regularity. That ought to be looked at very seriously by Dav Whatmore and Habibul Bashar.

As a late-life convert to Cricket (USA, baseball), I would like to offer the following comments. These comments are based on the money-driven professional sports in the USA and money-driven journalists who "expertly" dissect the game.

The professional athletes play the games and get results. If they don't get results they lose their livelihood! Journalists consider themselves the "people's experts" and feel that they have a duty/right to bring us the "truth". The "truth" is journalists rarely lose their livelihood for making poor/wrong predictions. For examples, will Mr Blair lose a "match fee" for his prediction. NO! If Stuart Clark had "failed" in S Africa is it possible/probable he could have lost his ACB contract? YES!

All of us can honestly admit that the pressure to be a consistent Test/ODI performer is different than the pressure to report on a player's successes/failures. I wonder if the media would have more respect for the pressure on the player's if the success/accuracy of their predictions/prognostications affected their remuneration package!

Right said there. There was no finishing job at all. But perhaps it takes some history of agony with close finishes to learn it. India, Sri Lanka are still learning it after years of Test cricket.

At least the skipper got it right by mentioning his own unpardonable runout as a start.

You can't beat Australia by scoring in just one innings. If they manage to give fitness and stamina their due then they will cease to be minnows in a year or two.