After a historic seven-wicket win in the first match of the BRAC Bank One Day International (ODI) Series, hosts Bangladesh take on visiting New Zealand in the second match at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) in the city Saturday, reports UNB.
This will be the 13th ODI encounter between the two Test playing nations. Earlier, in the previous 12 matches, the Black Caps enjoyed the upper hand over the Bengal Tigers winning 11 matches.
Before the second match, the Kiwis and the Tigers had full practice at the match venue Friday. The visitors made practice in the morning, while the hosts did so in the afternoon.
After suffering a humiliating 7-wicket defeat against the world's number 9 ranking team, the New Zealanders seemed pretty serious Friday as they had an hour-long strategy session at the SBNS before their practice.
Most of the players also had a close look at the wicket and was seen conversing with the curator Badiul Alam Khokon.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh team management is likely to play the same eleven today (Saturday), leaving out Mehrab Hossain Jr. and Imrul Kayes from the day's 12-member squad.
After the departure of the Kiwi side from venue, the rejuvenated Bangladesh side had indoor, fielding and net sessions.
During a break, Vice Captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza said: "After this (Thursday's) win all of us are in good mood. We all are mentally in good position. We'll take the field tomorrow (Saturday) to win the match."
He added: "Of course, there will be a chance for us to clinch the series and we will keep this in mind. But the first thing is we have to play well."
But Mashrafe, who played a very important part in Bangladesh's historic triumph over New Zealand claiming 4 wickets for 44 runs in 10 overs, made a guarded remark about the tourists.
He said: "Although we've beaten them (New Zealand), but they have the strength and will definitely come back hard. We'll try our best to do well in batting, bowling and fielding."
The 'Narail Express', as Mashrafe is popularly known, told a questioner that they would try to play positive cricket as they had done in the previous match.
Asked if the winning of toss will be a factor, the Bangladesh pace spearhead said: "It's tough to say. When you intend to win against a side like New Zealand, you'll have to do well in batting, bowling and fielding - that's all-round cricket."
Asked to comment on the wicket of the previous match, he said there was moisture on the wicket Thursday and "we were able to deliver the ball in the right place" to pick up wickets.
On the other hand, New Zealand's one down batsman Jamie How gave full credit to Bangladesh for their outright victory. "Bangladesh played really well and we were outsmarted by them. I think, they played smarter than us and they really deserved this victory."
The 27-year-old batsman thinks that they would have benefited if they could play the lone warm-up match which was washed out due to rain at the Narayanganj Osmani Stadium (NOS) at Fatullah.
But J How, who scored 7 in the first ODI, seemed very confident to come back in the series. He said: "We learned a lot from the last game and we are looking forward to levelling the series."
After the second ODI, the two teams will travel to Chittagong to play the 3rd ODI billed for Oct 14 and the first Test on Oct 17-21 at the Bir Shreshtho Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong.
Both the sides will then return to the capital to play the 2nd and last test slated for Oct 25-29 at the SBNS.
Rejuvenated Tigers face Kiwis in second ODI today
FE Team | Published: October 11, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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