Tigers take on Kiwis in first one-dayer today
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Bangladesh face New Zealand in the first match of the BRAC Bank ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) in the city's Mirpur today (Thursday).
The match will start at 9am with state-run Bangladesh Television (BTV) broadcast- ing the match live, reports UNB.
Ahead of the first encounter, Bangladesh dropped Imrul Kayes and Mehrab Hossain Jr from the 14-member squad and will take the field with four-man pace attack although pacer Shahadat Hossain Rajib or newly capped Mahbubul Alam Robin may become the 12th man.
The Tigers did their practice at the match venue Wednesday morning, but the visitors did not appear at the venue although they were scheduled to make practice.
Statistics shows that Bangladesh have no winning record against the Kiwis in any sort of International cricket except the unofficial practice match ahead of the 2007 World Cup where they edged past New Zealand by two wickets.
They suffered heartbreaking defeats at the hands of the Kiwis in all 14 ODIs in a row while thrashed miserably in all six Tests.
Before taking on the Kiwis, Bangladesh skipper Moha-mmad Ashraful sought uniform performance from his colleagues in all departments.
Talking to the reporters at a pre-match press conference at the SBNS, he said: "To fight against a team like New Zealand we need a given day but if our three departments-batting, bowling and fielding-fire up at the same time, we definitely can down them."
Replying to a question, Ashraful said: "International cricket is all about pressure if you can't perform well. But personally, I don't feel any extra pressure. I only know I've to score and now that's my goal. Hope the series will bring success for me."
To another query, the 24-year-old captain said: "I've to leave bowling in order to concentrate on my batting."
Ashraful felt they can improve their position in the ranking if the side can play all together till the 2011 World Cup. "But we've to perform well to stay all together," he admitted.
Coach Jamie Siddons said he doesn't feel any pressure despite his failure to earn a win against any major team during his one-year tenure.
He said: "I don't feel any pressure, because I think I'm doing as much as I can do with the team. But it would be nice if we win, start winning. I've always said it requires a long time plan to change the attitude in batting. Then we might be consistent."
Siddons said: "We want to win and that's why we are here for. And I think, generally we are improving in batting and bowling. Bowling has been good in the last few games. I think we can see a good result.
"Obviously, there was a little bit of hiccup with the ICL players leaving and new players coming in. It's not easy to change one player, let alone three players in a team. It's never easy to have a change in the team and we had a lot of change. Players are very keen to do well."
Bangladesh face New Zealand in the first match of the BRAC Bank ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) in the city's Mirpur today (Thursday).
The match will start at 9am with state-run Bangladesh Television (BTV) broadcast- ing the match live, reports UNB.
Ahead of the first encounter, Bangladesh dropped Imrul Kayes and Mehrab Hossain Jr from the 14-member squad and will take the field with four-man pace attack although pacer Shahadat Hossain Rajib or newly capped Mahbubul Alam Robin may become the 12th man.
The Tigers did their practice at the match venue Wednesday morning, but the visitors did not appear at the venue although they were scheduled to make practice.
Statistics shows that Bangladesh have no winning record against the Kiwis in any sort of International cricket except the unofficial practice match ahead of the 2007 World Cup where they edged past New Zealand by two wickets.
They suffered heartbreaking defeats at the hands of the Kiwis in all 14 ODIs in a row while thrashed miserably in all six Tests.
Before taking on the Kiwis, Bangladesh skipper Moha-mmad Ashraful sought uniform performance from his colleagues in all departments.
Talking to the reporters at a pre-match press conference at the SBNS, he said: "To fight against a team like New Zealand we need a given day but if our three departments-batting, bowling and fielding-fire up at the same time, we definitely can down them."
Replying to a question, Ashraful said: "International cricket is all about pressure if you can't perform well. But personally, I don't feel any extra pressure. I only know I've to score and now that's my goal. Hope the series will bring success for me."
To another query, the 24-year-old captain said: "I've to leave bowling in order to concentrate on my batting."
Ashraful felt they can improve their position in the ranking if the side can play all together till the 2011 World Cup. "But we've to perform well to stay all together," he admitted.
Coach Jamie Siddons said he doesn't feel any pressure despite his failure to earn a win against any major team during his one-year tenure.
He said: "I don't feel any pressure, because I think I'm doing as much as I can do with the team. But it would be nice if we win, start winning. I've always said it requires a long time plan to change the attitude in batting. Then we might be consistent."
Siddons said: "We want to win and that's why we are here for. And I think, generally we are improving in batting and bowling. Bowling has been good in the last few games. I think we can see a good result.
"Obviously, there was a little bit of hiccup with the ICL players leaving and new players coming in. It's not easy to change one player, let alone three players in a team. It's never easy to have a change in the team and we had a lot of change. Players are very keen to do well."
Bangladesh face New Zealand in the first match of the BRAC Bank ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) in the city's Mirpur today (Thursday).