Bangladesh team, recovering from their two-wicket loss against New Zealand, reached Cardiff on Thursday where they will face hosts England in their third match. Cardiff has been a blessed venue for the Tigers where they have played and won two matches. The first win was in 2005 when Habibul Bashar-led Bangladesh stunned Australia by five wickets. The match is still remembered as one of the greatest upsets in ODI.
Cardiff was tagged as the ‘city of blessings’ for Tigers in 2017 when they beat New Zealand in the ICC Champions Trophy chasing 265 runs. Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah Riyad struck centuries in that game.
Luck has again brought the Tigers back to Sophia Garden at a time when they are desperately trying to turn things around after their defeat in a nail-biter.
Bangladesh and England are both heading to Cardiff in search of victory. Both teams played two matches each in this World Cup and won one.
While Bangladesh beat South Africa in their first match and lost to New Zealand in the second, England beat South Africa in their first game and lost the next one to Pakistan.
Bangladesh can also find confidence from their history of beating England twice in the last two World Cups - 2011 and 2015. On both occasions, Mahmudullah played pivotal roles. The right-handed all-rounder is in the Bangladesh squad this time too. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the Bangladesh captain, said that they are confident about beating England once again. “I think they’re (England) one of the biggest sides in this tournament. It’s not going to be easy for us. But again, if we can play our best possible cricket, you never know. It's going to be difficult (for them),” he told the media at the end of the last match.
Cardiff has a special place in Bangladesh’s cricket folklore. The venue was involved in country’s two big moments which earned them the world respect and made them what they are now-a true cricketing giants. Bangladesh’s cricket renaissance basically started from this venue when they stunned the then all conquering Australia by five wickets in 2005, which is still regarded as the biggest upset the cricket world has ever seen. A ground, located at Wales, Cardiff is also the venue from which they announced their status of true cricketing giants as they beat New Zealand by five wickets to make the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal in 2017. Bangladesh played just those two matches in venue and won those to keep a hundred percent winning record here.
In their first two matches at The Oval, located in South London, against South Africa and New Zealand, the Tigers got the backing of expatriate Bangladeshis who outnumbered other countries fans to literally make the ground a sea of red and green. Expatriate Bangladeshi fans are expected to get behind Bangladesh when they take on England as they started reaching Cardiff from different parts of England. But it is to see whether they can outnumber English fans here. However whatever it is, Bangladesh are oozing with confidence as they believe they have the ability to beat any team in any place of the World. And they have already proved it is not an exaggerated confidence. Bangladesh beat South Africa by 21 runs, after posting their ODI highest 330 and with just
244 on the board in batting-friendly surface they showed their bowling prowess against New Zealand before losing it narrowly by two wickets.
“Whoever it is, we know if we can play to our potential, we have the ability to beat any side of the world. We can take the equation of venue, wicket and others out if we play our best cricket,” said Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. “I don’t like to think what happened in the past. Every match is new, we take every game one by one. The target is to play our best and win the game. That’s it.”
