Bangladesh cricketers Imrul Kayes, Sakib al Hasan and Soumya Sarkar are seen during a training session at a London ground on Friday. — BCB photo
Bangladesh will take on Australia in their next match in the Champions Trophy on Monday at the Oval with the match turning out to be virtually a knock out contest for both the sides as per the current standing.
Bangladesh lost their first match against hosts England and Australia could only snatch a point against New Zealand in their first match albeit in a precarious position thanks to the rain that abandoned the match.
That means if Bangladesh lose the match they will be out of the competition and a loss for Australia will also mean all but elimination for the Kangaroos.
Australia were in all sorts of trouble as they were reduced to 53-3 after nine overs while chasing 235 from 33 overs when the rain finally forced the match to be called off.
Australia lost their dashing openers David Warner and Aaron Finch for 16 and eight respectively before losing Moises Henriques for 18 in the last ball before the rain arrived.
Earlier the match was stipulated for 46-over-per-side and New Zealand made 291 thanks to a 97-ball 100 of their skipper Kane Williamson before the rain arrived in the innings break to curtail the match further.
Josh Hazzlewood instigated a late collapse that saw Australians losing their last seven wickets for just 37 runs and the pacer finished with a figure of 6-52.
Australian four-pronged pace attack was much discussed but apart from Hazzlewood’s late spell they looked hapless against New Zealand.
However, things could be different during their Monday’s meeting against Bangladesh, who appeared to be defensive against England in their opening match packing their line-up with eight batsmen.
Bangladesh’s decision was clearly influenced by their woeful batting in the preceding warm-up match against India when in the face of some quality attack from Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar they were folded for 84 runs.
Fearful of similar collapse they took an extra batsman against England yet fell short of 20-30 runs, which cost them game.
It left them going back to the drawing board just like their next opponents Australia, who were left concerned about their misfiring pace attack.
The sides are not much familiar to each other and they will meet after six years as they last played an ODI match between them back in April 13, 2011 at Dhaka in a three-match series.
Australia were overwhelming favourite then and presumably won the series 3-0 but since then Bangladesh transformed into strong side with wins over some big teams.
They were supposed to play a match in the group stage at the World Cup 2015 but that match, supposed to be held in Brisbane on February 21 was washed out.
Australia also declined their Bangladesh tour later on that year citing security problem.
Australia’s ODI form in this year is mixed as they won the five-match series at home against Pakistan before losing to hosts New Zealand by 2-0 at the Chappell-Hadley Trophy.
Bangladesh’s ODI record in 2017 is three wins and three losses with two matches washed out as they beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka before beating New Zealand and hosts Ireland in the tri-series.
Source: New Age
