Sabbir Hossain :
Bangladesh and reigning champions West Indies will meet each other today (Tuesday) in the Group B match of the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.
The match starts at 7.30 pm BST (Bangladesh Standard Time).
State-owned channel Bangladesh Television and private satellite channels Maasranga Television, GTV will telecast the match live from the stadium.
Before today’s match, Bangladesh played against West Indies in four Twenty20 Cricket International matches. Of them, Bangladesh posted two wins, while West Indies won two games.
The Tigers defeated West Indies by six wickets in their first match in the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket in 2007.
Then Bangladesh lost to Caribbeans in West Indies in 2009.
The Tigers composed three-wicket victory over West Indies in 2011, while West Indies posted win against Bangladesh in 2012.
Bangladesh came through the qualifiers, winning the first two of their three games in the first pool stage. As expected they were too good for Afghanistan (9 wickets) and Nepal (8 wickets), wins which in the end pretty much guaranteed a place in the Super 10’s. However they still needed to avoid an absolute catastrophe against Hong Kong in their final qualifier, they made a hash of it losing the game by two wickets after being bowled out for just 108, but their net run rate wasn’t damaged to a degree which would have seen them eliminated.
Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim accepted it would be tough to come back after the loss, but said the unpredictable Twenty20 format gave him hope.
“It’s not going to be easy to get over what happened in the last game, but cricket is full of surprises,” Rahim told a media conference on Monday.
“Any team can win in the shortened game, and so can we. But we will need to play to our full potential. What happened earlier will not count.”
Rahim said, the West Indies, the defending champions, also will be under pressure after their seven-wicket defeat to India on Sunday.
“We must take advantage of that,” he said. “It is a must-win game for them and they will feel the pressure.”
Bangladesh are drawn with the West Indies, Australia, India and Pakistan in group two, from where two teams will advance to the semi-finals.
Coach of West Indies team Ottis Gibson said. “I am sure people will look at [Chris] Gayle to hit the ball to the stands rather than take a quick single and pull a hamstring. If you look back at the game, most of our best players are in the IPL and I think they [India] know them quite well, and a lot of the plans from Sunday night seem to come out of IPL. Bangladesh are different and we look forward to it. We have to focus on winning to survive in the tournament.”
