A confident Bangladesh will be hoping to end their final jinx when they take on West Indies in the final of tri-series one-day international tournament at Malahide Cricket Club Ground in Dublin today.
The match is scheduled to start at 3:45pm Bangladesh Time and will be telecast live on GTV and Maasranga TV.
The Tigers have never won a multi-team tournament despite qualifying for the finals in six different tournaments of short formats.
After making their maiden final appearance against Sri Lanka in a tri-series in 2009 at home, Bangladesh played five more finals – three against India and one each against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh’s match against West Indies will be their fourth final in as many tournaments since 2018.
The final is also the last official game for Bangladesh before ICC World Cup, meaning they are expected to put up an out effort to give them a confident boost.
Though Bangladesh won the three matches in the tournament comfortably on their way to final their performance was unconvincing at times in all three departments.
Bangladesh’s batsmen struck eight fifties in the tournament but none could convert it to a hundred when West Indies and Ireland batsmen hit four and two hundreds respectively.
Bangladesh’s bowling was also erratic at times, especially against Ireland in the last game when Paul Stirling and William Porterfield put 174 runs for the fourth wicket to put them in trouble.
Bangladesh capitalised on the inexperience of Ireland to claw their way back into the contest but were unlikely to get away from a similar situation against a quality opposition.
Bangladesh’s fielders also grassed two easy catches in Ireland game, something they cannot afford against tougher opponents.
With the performance in all three departments already causing some headaches, Sakib al Hasan’s injury came as an added concern for the Tigers ahead of the final.
Though the team officials dismissed the injury as ‘nothing serious’, physio Thihan Chandramohan in a statement said they would wait until the morning for Sakib, was suffering from back spasm.
Sakib or no Sakib, Bangladesh, however, would start the game as favourites having enjoyed a considerable amount of success against West Indies in the recent years.
Bangladesh beat West Indies both at home and away in 2018 before recording back-to-back win over the side in the ongoing tri-series.
Since their 3-0 ODI series win over Bangladesh at home in August 2014, West Indies failed to win in any of their last 19 ODI tournaments, which included World Cup, World Cup Qualifiers, bilateral series and tri-series.
The Caribbean came into the tournament with an experimental side, which included only eight members of their World Cup squad.
Yet, they have some promising performance despite the thrashing from Bangladesh as Shai Hope made 396 runs in four matches while John Campbell and Sunil Ambris struck a century each.
-With New Age input
