Bangladesh captain Mashrafee bin Murtaza (C) celebrates with team-mates after taking the wicket of West Indies’ Sunil Ambris during their tri-nation series match at the Malahide Cricket Club in Dublin on Monday. — AFP photo
With the final of the tri-series tournament already assured, Bangladesh now await a chance to test their fringe players when they take on hosts Ireland in their final league match in Dublin today.
The match at the Clontarf Cricket Club Ground is scheduled to start at 3:45pm Bangladesh Standard Time and will be telecast live on GTV and Maasranga TV.
Bangladesh travelled to Ireland with as many as 19 players but did not experiment much in the two matches that they played so far in the competition.
They fielded largely their best team in the opening game against West Indies before their second match against Ireland was rained off.
In the third match against the Caribbean side they could not afford to bring too many changes in the line-up as a position in the final was at stake.
Only one change was made in the squad and that too because of a back injury of all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin, who had been replaced by debutant pacer Abu Jayed.
It means Bangladesh used so far only 12 cricketers leaving Liton Das, Mosaddek Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Yasir Ali, Nayeem Hasan, Taskin and Farhad Reza any game yet.
Among those, who played so far, Sabbir Rahman could bat only seven balls while Mehedi Hasan was yet to touch the bat though the later made his mark with the ball.
Of the senior players, Mahmudullah also missed a significant playing time.
It was unclear if Bangladesh would make a wholesale change or give a team mixed with experienced players and youths.
If played this game could also bring some important milestones for two senior cricketers Sakib al Hasan and skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza.
Sakib is just one wicket shy of completing his 250 wickets, which if he gets will also bring a new record for the all-rounder.
With the one wicket Sakib will become the fastest cricketer to achieve the double of 250 wickets and 5000 runs in ODIs.
Sakib, who will be playing his 198th one-day international, will overtake the record of Pakistan’s Abdul Razzaq, who achieved it in 234 matches.
With one wicket, Sakib will also join the select group of all-rounders that also include Sanath Jayasuriya, Shahid Afridi, Jacques Kallis.
Mashrafee needs just three wickets to complete his 100 wickets as captain.
Given the kind of form he showed in the tournament, when he took back-to-back three wickets for the first time since 2006, Mashrafee was also favourite to achieve his milestone.
Source: New Age.