Bangladesh will try to salvage something at the end of a disappointing World Twenty20 campaign and a miserable two-plus-month home stand when they take on Australia in their final Super 10 match at Mirpur this afternoon. As the World Twenty20 got underway, the Tigers seemed to have turned the corner somewhat after a painful bilateral home series against Sri Lanka and a fruitless Asia Cup campaign, which saw them lose heartbreakers, lose comprehensively, lose when it seemed impossible and, humiliatingly, lose to Associate nation Afghanistan in a stretch that saw the home side fail to produce a single positive result.
Bangladesh then won a pair of T20 warm-up matches against the UAE and Ireland before crushing Afghanistan and Nepal in their first two first round matches, but the turnaround was short-lived, as a shocking loss to part-timers Hong Kong preceded three heavy losses to the West Indies, India and Pakistan in the Super 10s.
Now the tournament hosts have one last opportunity to take something positive out of a tournament in which they have been woefully short of answers.
‘When someone is not scoring runs or bowling well, it is very difficult. If only one or two guys are playing well from the 11 it is very difficult,’ captain Mushfiqur Rahim lamented after Sunday’s 50-run defeat to Pakistan officially eliminated the Tigers from semi-final contention.
‘When you are playing against India, Pakistan, West Indies, you have to play well as a team and have contributions from all batsmen and all bowlers. Really disappointing tournament so far, but we have one more game to go; we would really like to finish it well so that we can take some positives out of the last game.’
‘In the last two years we were able to recover from bad performances. But no one expected us to lose those matches [against Sri Lanka in the first bilateral ODI, against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup and against Hong Kong in the WT20], and I think that has put us on the back foot mentally.’
‘One game left, we will try to play freely. It cannot get worse; losing by 50 runs in a T20 is like losing by 100-150 in ODIs.’
The Tigers received a further blow when veteran seamer Mashrafee bin Murtaza, who was in a race to regain fitness ahead of the World Twenty20 due to a side strain, was ruled out of today’s match after re-aggravating the injury against Pakistan.
Mashrafee will be replaced in the squad by 18-year-old Taskin Ahmed, who took 1-31 for Bangladesh A against South Africa in a warm-up match at Fatullah on March 18.
Lining up opposite the Tigers will be an Australian side looking to take something away from the tournament themselves after failing to pick up a single victory in their first three matches and finding themselves stuck outside the semi-finals picture. According to all-rounder Shane Watson, the side will have something to prove in today’s match.
‘Playing cricket for your country in a world cup, whatever format, is a huge honour,’ Watson said after Sunday’s crushing 73-run loss to India, a match that Australia went into already knowing they would progress no further in the tournament.
‘There are certainly going to be a lot of people with damaged pride especially after tonight [Sunday]. We will be ready to go to try and finish the tournament how we should have started really.’
-With New Age input
