History beckons Bangladesh
Tigers must beat Kiwis to stay alive
Syed Mohammed Pithu from Cardiff
History beckons Bangladesh on the eve of their crucial match against New Zealand at Cardiff, scheduled to be held on June 9, as the stake is higher than anticipation.
In their previous two outings in the Champions Trophy tournament Bangladesh could never win any match against a top flight opposition. But this time, there is opportunity to break the deadlock, specially when they have the upperhand over New Zealand. If the encounters between the two sides since 2010 are taken into the consideration, Bangladesh won more matches than New Zealand. Most of the victories however came at their home ground but Bangladesh proved they have the psychological advantage on the Kiwis when they beat them in Ireland in a Tri-nation series. The victory specially gave Bangladesh a confidence to make it happen again.
Bangladesh certainly need to win the match albeit it wont guarantee them to make the cut in the semi-final because there are lot of ifs and buts involved in it. As New Zealand lost their match to England by massive 87 runs margin, Bangladesh now need to beat New Zealand and wait for the defeat of Australia at the hands of England. And then the dream would be materialised. Australia would take on England on June 10. Given the form of England, Bangladesh could expect that the hosts would beat Australia.
So win against New Zealand would not only give Bangladesh their first victory in the ICC Champions Trophy but also stay them alive in the tournament.
Moreover a victory would increase their chance to confirm the ICC 2019 World Cup in England directly because their main contenders Pakistan and Sri Lanka couldnt show the performance to beat the top guns so far. Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka lost their first match by massive margin and it is unlikely that they could make it semi-final. So for Bangladesh there is massive chance to confirm the 2019 World Cup directly. And victory against New Zealand would make it more realistic.
There is no other way to win the match, Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said. We dont know what would be happened. But we need to accomplish our task what is in the hands now.
Since we are fortunate enough to get a point, I think now we should be more motivated to win the match. Because only a victory could show us the path of semi-final. So we will try to come all guns blazing, Shakib added.
Bangladesh indeed took it as a lucky chance after having a lucky escape against mighty Australia by the blessings of rain. The Cardiff stadium is only an added inspiration because it is the ground in which Bangladesh produced a massive upset of the cricket history by beating the then all conquering Australia. When they will return to that ground once again, definitely they will revisit the memory even though apart from Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, no other Bangladesh and even no other Australian were the part of that game.
It has been a good memory for us always. Its an inspiration, said Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. But its a do or die game for us. Boys know that they would stand on chance to move into the semi-final if they can beat New Zealand. So I think everybody is motivated.
