Bangladesh’s semifinal hopes came to an end on Tuesday after their heartbreaking 28-run loss to India. Tigers will now confront Pakistan in their last match of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Lords in London on Friday (today). They will hope to put disappoint behind and end the World Cup on a high by beating Pakistan.
Bangladesh have put up some spirited performances in this World Cup. Especially, ace all-rounder, Shakib Al Hasan has done practically just about everything a cricketer can do on the field. Tigers have ridden the wave of Shakib’s all-around excellence to compete against the top teams in the competition.
They beat South Africa and Afghanistan, pulled off a record chase against West Indies, showed several moments of brilliance in a stern chase against Australia, and nearly beat New Zealand. However, failure to compete mentally against the big guns has been the biggest setback for Bangladesh in this World Cup. Unlike the 2015 World Cup, Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign ran unaided. There was no washout or cancelation of a match in favor of Bangladesh, on the contrary, their momentum was halted in a match against Sri Lanka which Bangladesh were favorites to win.
However, there will also be regret of not winning the match against New Zealand on June 5 at The Oval. Also, the match against India was winnable if the senior campaigners played with more responsibility while batting. Meanwhile, Pakistan need to beat Bangladesh by a margin of over 300 runs to trump New Zealand and secure semifinal berth, which is next to impossible. Currently placed fifth with nine points from eight matches, Pakistan face the challenge of beating Bangladesh by 311 runs after posting 350 or by 316 runs after scoring 400.
These win margins have never been achieved in the history of ODI cricket, let alone at a tournament such as the World Cup. However, if Bangladesh bat first, then Pakistan are out of the equation even before the game begins. So probably it is a dead rubber but in the context of a match, it will be an exciting match to watch. It will be interesting to see how the Bangladesh batting lineup will respond to Pakistan’s inform pace attack, especially youngster Shahin Afridi.
On the other hand, it will also be a bit of a daunting task for Pakistan batting to face Tigers ace pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman, who took a five-wicket haul against India. Fizz’s battle with the likes of Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam and Haris Sohail could make for some riveting viewing. Both team would like to leave England with a happy memory. After all, all’s well that ends well.