In a bid to secure their first victory in the ongoing ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup (WC), Bangladesh will take on hosts Australia today at Manuka Oval in Canberra.
The match starts at 2 pm (Bangladesh Standard Time).
Bangladesh lost their first match to India by 18 runs and a defeat against the hosts Australia, also a four-time champions in this tournament would almost dash their hope to seal the last four spot.
This will be Bangladesh’s first clash with Australia in the T20 version of cricket.
Australia however lost their first match to India by 15 runs but bounced back in style with a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka.
While Australia wants to keep up the winning spree, for Bangladesh it is almost a do or die clash.
Jahanara Alam will lead the seam attack tasked with extending the patchy form of star Australia opener Alyssa Healy.
Jahanara, who captained her country at the 2016 T20 World Cup, feels juggernauts Australia will have contend with an ever-improving Bangladesh side.
“We’ll go for the win, what happened in the last match doesn’t matter,” said the seamer ahead of the match.
“This is our fourth World Cup but the first time we’ve played against Australia. We have analysed their videos but we know this is a big platform to compete with a big team and defending champion. We think we are improving a lot. We’re a little behind, we haven’t got that much experience against the big teams, but we have been preparing ourselves in tournaments.”
“Australia have got a lot of big names in their team. They are strong with pace and spin, we have got good players but we need to execute our plan properly.”
Australia looks somewhat down after the injury of their vital cog Ellyse Perry.
Perry hit the winning runs against Sri Lanka but was castled for a golden duck in opening defeat to India, also taking just one wicket in two matches with the ball.
“Batting Ellyse down the order is something we’ve gone with for a little while now, we’re flexible in our batting line-up,” said Australia skipper Meg Lanning. “The top six could all open and it comes up to the match-ups and the game situations.
Knowing that Bangladesh is capable of springing surprise, Australia remains careful of not giving Salma Khatun’s side to produce any upset.
“Ellyse is a world-class player and no doubt she’ll get her chance. We just have to be really flexible to the team’s needs.
“I’m sure there are a few players in this competition who are managing injuries and she’s a professional, she’s dealing with it very well so we’re not expecting anything major out of that.”
