BSP-25 Mashrafe upbeat to overcome Australian threat

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ZCZC

BSP-25

CRICKET-AUS-MASHRAFE

Mashrafe upbeat to overcome Australian threat

DHAKA, June 19, 2019 (BSS)-Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, oozing with confidence, said his side is upbeat about winning against Australia tomorrow at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, which happens to be a “do or die” affair for the Tigers.

“We are confident and there is no doubt about it,” Mashrafe told reporters in a pre-match conference at Nottingham today.

“I think that was a must-win game for us [against West Indies] to stay in that tournament. Losing point to New Zealand and England was disappointing and obviously sharing points with Sri Lanka hurt. You never know, we could have won this match. We got back to track again, it was much needed. And the boys are pretty much confident [to win the match against Australia],” he said.

Having said that he admitted Australia will pose different challenges and it won’t be easy for Bangladesh to win against them. But again, he believed if they can have a good start, they would win the game.

Mashrafe said that they are not interested to prove anything to Australia despite the fact the Aussies are reluctant to host them or play regularly with Tigers.

Australia remains the only Test nation against whom Bangladesh didn’t win more than one match. Indeed they didn’t win any ODI against Australia in this decade -their only victory came against Australia in 2005 at Cardiff thanks to Mohammad Ashraful’s blistering 100.

At that time, Bangladesh’s win against then all conquering Australia, boasting the likes of Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Mathew Hayden and so many great players, was termed as the biggest upset in ODI cricket history.

After 2011, Bangladesh indeed faced off Australia just twice, in 2015 World Cup and 2017 ICC Champions’ Trophy and both times the match was washed out, meaning they didn’t play any complete ODI game against the Aussies after 2011.

Australia is the team which however didn’t host Bangladesh to play any bilateral series since 2008 and quite often refused to tour Bangladesh showing security concern but the Tigers tour Australia for two-match Test series in 2017. Bangladesh drew that Test series but no ODI series was played then.

“I don’t think we have to prove anything, but it’s always disappointing when you’re not touring and not coming and playing in such a big site.

It’s always disappointing. You can learn a lot of things when you’re travelling, that part of the world like Australia, England, New Zealand and obviously South Africa,” said Mashrafe.

“It’s always disappointing when that sort of thing happens. But again I would say that what has happened before we don’t want to think about it,” he said.

“It’s a tournament that everyone wants to play well in. Everyone wants to win. And this is the right time to prove ourselves that we are a better side than what we’ve been,” he added.

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