Taskin still hopeful of a miracle

Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed is still hopeful of a miracle in the closing stages of the Super 12 that can propel his side into the T20 World Cup semifinal.

Bangladesh still have an outside chance to qualify for the last four following Pakistan's victory over South Africa, even though it's not straightforward. India are currently leading Group 2 with six points from four games and will take on Zimbabwe in their last game and a win will help them qualify as group toppers, reports Cricbuzz.

South Africa are currently placed in the second position in Group 2 with five points and a win over Netherlands in their last match at Adelaide Oval on November 6 will help them progress to the next stage.

Bangladesh earned four points so far and will take on Pakistan in their last group match on November 6 and they need to beat them by a big margin in order to better their net run rate and hope that either India or South Africa lose their last game in Super 12.

"If you look at this group, every match went down interestingly. Even now anything can happen. There can be miracles and it can happen (playing in the semis)," Taskin told reporters on Friday following their practice session at the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide on Friday.

"We will go with the same spirit in the last game and would like to win the game by playing good cricket. If we can win the game we can do the calculation later. But our main target is to win the next game.

Taskin admitted that beating Pakistan would be a difficult job considering their opponents are clear favourites to win the game but added that anything can happen in the shortest format.

"Look Pakistan is a good team across formats and they proved it. We have to play good cricket if we want to win and our main goal is to improve both individually and team wise. We are learning and we are playing better cricket than before but we haven't become a great team in the T20 format so to become a good team we need to improve from every aspect," said Taskin.

"It is difficult to predict in T20 games because anything can happen. If we can restrict them to 150 or 160 I think it is chaseable and if we bat first and put up a commendable score it can be defended. We hope that we can win if we play good cricket. They are ahead of us team wise and everyone knows Pakistan is a better team than us. Our main target is improvement and as I said we haven't become a great team in the shortest format."

Taskin also heaped praise on young bowler Hasan Mahmud while adding that the entire pace unit has the hunger to make big strides. While Taskin himself has been in good form throughout the tournament, Mahmud had a good game against India picking up three wickets.