Bangladesh out to spoil Malinga's farewell in 1st ODI Friday
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|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh eyeing to spoil Lasith Malinga’s farewell party as they prepare to take on Sri Lanka in the three-match series opener at Colombo on Friday.
The day-night affair is going to be an electric affair considering all the tickets are sold out with local crowds coming to inspire their legendary pace bowler, who decided to quit from 50-over format where he excelled during the last 15 years. The whole Sri Lanka are pumped enough to give him befitting farewell.
‘’Tomorrow is a special match for him. And one thing for sure when we will play against him we won't keep in mind that it's his last match and we will try to make it as tough for him as possible,’’ Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal told reporters ahead of their opening game against Sri Lanka.
‘’We will try to win the match for Bangladesh cricket. Its really amazing the things he achieved for Sri Lanka cricket and for the whole world. Best wishes to him from me and my teammates. I heard he will continue in the t20 cricket. I want to wish him good luck for that. But not much for tomorrows match,’’ he said.
After coming off from a disappointing World Cup outing, where they finished at eighth in 10-team tournament, Bangladesh tasted a serious criticism and it is said the pain could be healed if they can win the series against Sri Lankan soil.
They did their first job perfectly—beating Sri Lanka’s Board President’s XI by five wickets, chasing 283-run target in warm-up game.
However, Bangladesh’s is yet to win any bilateral ODI series in Sri Lanka though they settled for draw in the last two editions.
Tiger are taking confidence as they crushed Sri Lanka by 137 runs in the last match they played against them in Asia Cup in 2018 while they have won some T20 matches at Lankans soil also, making them absolute favourite against them in recent time.
But the overall stat is still in Lankans favour. Out of the 45 ODIs between the two sides, Bangladesh won just 7, while Sri Lanka grabbed victory in 36 matches. The other two matches was washed out.
If the last five encounters between the two sides are taken into consideration, it is not such one sided as Bangladesh won two and lost three.
Even though it’s a new look Bangladesh, led by Tamim Iqbal who never captained the side in ODI cricket. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s injury-forced absence and Shakib Al Hasan’s absence for personal affairs was the reason to give Tamim the captaincy.
Apart from Mashrafe and Shakib, Bangladesh also didn’t get the service of Liton Das and Mohammad Saifuddin from their World Cup team.
Taijul Islam, Anamul Haque Bijoy, Farhad Reza and Taskin Ahmed came to the side while Shaiful Islam is the late edition.
Despite a new look team, Bangladesh are confident that they will start the series as favourite.
Sri Lanka also brought up five changes from the World Cup squad for the series.
The only bad news is that Soumya Sarkar had a blow on his elbow while preparing against throw downs but team official it was not that serious though he did not bat afrer that.
‘’At this moment, our first target is to start the first session well. I always think and I say this all the time, its a problem if we start focusing on the finishing line before the starting line. tomorrow , we have to start well, no matter if we bowl or bat,’’ said Tamim
‘’And of course our main target will be to win the match. We want to move forward one step at a time. We want to go avery long way. I am sure if you ask or their captain, he will also say that he wants to win this series. I also want to the series. you have do small things properly. And it will start from the first ball of the match. Doesnt matter we bat or bowl first,’’ he added.
