 After a rather heavy drubbing at the hands of India, Bangladesh
will take on the third side in their group, Ireland, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
And due to their loss to India, this becomes a must-win game for the Bangladeshis,
as another defeat would mean that they will need to pack their bags, and Ireland
will go through to the second round.
To be fair to Bangladesh, the first half of both, their batting and bowling
innings had had their noses just slightly ahead. But they couldn't sustain the
momentum, having a batsman and a bowler - Yuvraj Singh and Pragyan
Ojha - take the game away from him.
Bangladesh needs a good death-overs bowler against the Ireland to contain them
right through the inning; not just the start. For some strange reason, the previous
game had seen Mahmudullah bowl only a couple of overs and then not tried again,
despite going for 15 runs only. A spinner like him could be brought on quite
early, and if possible afforded more bowling, in order to allow someone like
a Mashrafe Mortaza to bowl the slog overs. Mortaza had only one over
in his kitty when Yuvraj was going hammer and tongs, making it very difficult
to control the scoring rate.
The Bangladeshi batting began rather well, especially with the aggression of
Junaid Siddique taking them to a run-rate of almost ten runs to an over. It
was the fall of a couple of wickets that pegged the Bangladeshis back. Unfortunately
for Bangladesh, two of their most experienced batsmen in Mohammad Ashraful and
Shakib-al-Hasan failed to make an impression due to which they fell by the wayside.
The duo needs to showcase their batting prowess if Bangladesh needs to get anywhere
near that elusive second round berth.
If there is one thing that Ireland does not lack, it is match practice as they
are the only team in the competition to play five warm-up games. However, if
one were to look at the results, Ireland's only win has come against the Dutch
side in a game that went into the super-over. Despite coach Phil Simmons statement
on their aim to get into the Super Eights, they will need to play out of their
skins to even think of beating a far more superior team than them.
For starters, players like Jeremy Bray and captain William Porterfield
need to get going with the bat, while the bowlers like Boyd Rankin and former
Irish skipper Trent Johnson have to come to the party with the cherry in their
hand.
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