Relaxed Bangladesh eyeing berth in ICC Under19 World Cup final
Image : BCB
|| CF Correspondent ||
Relaxed Bangladesh will take on New Zealand in the ICC Under-19 World Cup at the JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom on Thursday.
Tigers have the moral upper-hand over the Kiwis having beaten them by 4-1 margin at in their own den while their confidence is expected to be sky-high considering they have beaten host South Africa in the quarter-final, who were considered as a one of the title contender.
Bangladesh are bidding to get into the final for the first time while New Zealand have not reached the final since 1998.
Bangladesh, meanwhile, topped their group after wins against Scotland and Zimbabwe, though they had the rain to thank for a no result against Pakistan that saw them top the group.
Bangladesh will be looking forward to see left-arm spinner Rakibul Hasan, who picked a hat-trick against Scotland and followed it up with 5-19 against South Africa to lead their bowling attack.
Bangladesh skipper Akbar Ali said that they are quite relaxed and now want to execute their plans in the middle without taking any load of any expectation.
‘’We have taken both mental and physical preparation and now it is time for us to deliver in the middle and we can do that we can hope that the result will be on our side,’’ Akbar told reporters ahead of the match.
‘’New Zealand have come so far playing good cricket and we will try to bundle them out as low as possible. They have got good batsman down the order while their batting order is quite long,’’ he said.
‘’Everyone is relaxed and everyone is taking it just as another game because it will be better if we think it as just another game instead of semi-final and final,’’ he added.
While there are many renowned batsman, Tanzid Hasan is certainly going through some form, scoring 80 at the top of the order in the win against South Africa.
Tanzid also hit 71 when Bangladesh last beat New Zealand too during the last time both the teams met while team management will be eager to see that pace bowler Shoriful Islam also fires, who took 5-43 when these teams last met in a YODI and claimed his fourth wicket in three innings at this tournament when he posted figures of 1-28 last time out
Bangladesh won 4-1 in a five-game series in New Zealand in September/October last year and have now won six of their nine previous YODI matches against New Zealand in total. New Zealand did beat Bangladesh comfortably in a warm-up match for this tournament.
Along the way there is Towhid Ridoy known to be a big match player.
