Tigers take on Scotland tomorrow
Cricket fans across the country will have to make some serious adjustments to their Thursday morning’s wake-up call if they are unwilling to miss the Tigers in action against Scotland.
With the match beginning as early as 4 am (Bangladesh time) at the Saxton Oval in Nelson, a crucial phase may be done and dusted by the time a majority of the nation wakes up.
Ideally yesterday’s 9:30 am clash between South Africa and Ireland, which saw the former romp to a 201-run win, is what cricket fans in this part of the world prefer most.
However, whether you manage to keep up with your alarm or not, the one thing’s that certain is that there will be sleepless nights amongst many. Granted; the Scots may be a lot more inexperienced than the Tigers, but they don’t really have anything to lose.
For Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and co though this is a must-win encounter. For them to keep any hopes of a quarterfinal berth alive, they will need to be on their toes.
Having beaten the Afghans comfortably in the first game, Bangladesh’s fielding produced a shocker in their third as they were thumped by Sri Lanka. However skipper Mashrafe believed that they would be able to rectify their mistakes.
“We made lots of mistakes in the last game and that’s why this match is an opportunity for us to correct those mistakes and put everything right. It can help us get into good shape for the next two big matches,” hoped Mashrafe.
And one of the first aspects that the Tigers will need to fix is their vulnerable batting order. The top order has failed to perform in the last two matches. Both the openers have been struggling due to their own respective problems. While Tamim Iqbal seemed unfit, Anamul Haque Bijoy can’t seem to time his runs properly. Except for a few good performances from Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, the batsmen have looked below-par.
The last time the two teams met, Scotland beat Bangladesh by 34 runs in a T20i. However, the Tigers are unbeaten in the ODIs. They lead the head-to-head stats 3-0. While the Tigers did plan and mark a few particular Scottish players to observe, Mashrafe admitted that their plans don’t always work.
“Sometime your plan may not work. But you can’t be scared. You have to try to execute it no matter what. A team always has a plan A and plan B. But we tend to become double-minded when our initial plan doesn’t work.
“I believe this is the match where we can fix our problems and execute our plans properly,” explained the 31-year-old.
A small venue with approximately 5,000 spectators; teams are expected to score runs here. Two matches have been played here during the World Cup and both of them have witnessed high-scoring games.
Ireland chased down West Indies’s 304 while Zimbabwe came back from the brink to down the United Arab Emirates after the men from the Gulf posted 285. By the looks of the last few matches, a par-score here would be above 300.
The match against Scotland may also see Bangladesh introduce an extra spinner into the side in place of a batsman. Spinners did get wickets in the last two matches here. Scotland’s inexperience against spin is another reason that may compel the team management to bring in a change.
-With The Daily Star input
