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Tigers want to roar against Lions today

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka need win to keep them alive


June 11, 2019 00:00:00


Mushfiqur Rahim attending a training session at Bristol County Ground in Bristol, southwest England on Monday ahead of their 2019 Cricket World Cup group stage match against Sri Lanka to be held today (Tuesday) — AFP

BRISTOL, June 10 (Agencies): After two consecutive defeats, Bangladesh will look to return to winning ways when they face Sri Lanka in their fourth World Cup game at the Bristol Cricket Ground on Tuesday.

With both teams have now just one win under belt, the match is important for both of them in keeping them alive.

The match will take place at 3:30pm (BdST), and it will be telecast by Maasrangatv, Gtv and Btv. Along with these three TV channels, the match will also be telecast through Rabbithole (rabbitholebd.com) and Bioscope (bioscopelive.com).

Bangladesh made a perfect start to their World Cup campaign, posting their highest one-day international score of 330-6 during the 21-run win over South Africa.

However, the Tigers were not able to take forward the winning momentum and were handed a two-wicket loss by New Zealand followed by a massive a 106-run defeat to hosts England.

In the batting department, wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim has been impressive but openers Soumya Sarkar and Tamim Iqbal have squandered their starts, failing to play impactful knocks.

Star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who is in fine form with the bat, having scored two half-centuries and a hundred in the tournament, is expected to play the key role again for his side.

However, Bangladesh's major concern is their bowling which was taken for plenty by tournament favourites England in their previous encounter. They conceded a total in excess of 380 and were given a hard time on the field.

Tigers are now just looking forward to turning the things around against Sri Lanka.

"We have lost two matches in a row. But this is not a big setback. We still have six matches to play in the World Cup. If we can execute our plans properly and win some of them, we can still make our way to the semi-finals," Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz told the media after losing to England.

"First three matches are gone. So we are not bothered by those. Now we have to bounce back in the next game and to do that we have to play our best cricket. We are focused on the next game now," Miraz further said.

According to a source close to the team management, Bangladesh are going to make at least two changes. Although the team management is yet to confirm the changes, that could be the inclusion of Liton Das and Rubel Hossain replacing Mohammad Mithun and Mehidy Hasan Miraz or Mohammad Saifuddin.

The team management might include Rubel considering the condition of Bristol. The right-arm pacer has the experience of playing 97 ODIs under his belt. So he is the most experienced pace bowler in Bangladesh's World Cup squad after Mashrafe.

Ahead of the clash against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh have nothing to take as the inspiration from their history of World Cup against them. Tigers have played Sri Lanka three times in the World Cup and failed to register any win.

However, after the last World Cup, Bangladesh faced Sri Lanka in seven ODIs and won three of them while one match was rained-off. The record indicates that the Tigers are now a team who can fight shoulder to shoulder against the island nation.

The last time the both teams met in Asia Cup in Dubai, Bangladesh beat Sri

Lanka by 137 runs thanks to Mushfiqur Rahim's career-best 144.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka will be looking for two crucial points after their last encounter was washed out against Pakistan. The Dimuth Karunaratne-led side started their tournament campaign on the worst possible note, conceding a 10-wicket defeat to New Zealand. However, it was their bowling which rescued them against Afghanistan in a rain-curtailed match which they just managed to win.

Batting has been one of the issues which Sri Lanka has been coping with in the initial phase of the ongoing tournament. They have suffered batting collapses and have not been able to play their full quota of 50 overs in all the completed matches.

In bowling, they will miss the services of Nuwan Pradeep who won them the match against Afghanistan. However, with the likes of Lasith Malinga, their bowling still finds an edge over Bangladesh.

Squads: Bangladesh (Probable XI): Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman.

Sri Lanka (Probable XI): Dimuth Karunaratne (c),Dhananjaya de Silva, Nuwan Pradeep, Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Perera, Thisara Perera, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay.


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