Do-or-die for Tigers

The sky over The Oval was gloomy yesterday and when the Bangladesh camp was training there in the afternoon they were perhaps thinking that they could turn that gloom into bright sunshine the next day by winning against the mighty Australia in what will be a do-or-die Champions Trophy fixture for both teams.

Bangladesh will go into today's day-night game on the back of a punishing eight-wicket defeat against hosts England. Australia on the other hand can feel that they were lucky to sneak away with a one crucial point against New Zealand in a rain-abandoned game where they were precariously placed at 53 for 3 chasing the Black Caps' 291.

Bangladesh have beaten Australia once in their previous ODI meetings. Incidentally that famous victory was in England way back in 2005 in Cardiff's Sophia Gardens. However, the Tigers hardly get the opportunity to play against Australia with their last one-day fixture against them in Dhaka way back in 2011, during a three-match series. There was a chance for Bangladesh to have a clash with the Aussies in the 2015 World Cup's group stages, but it was washed out without a ball being bowled due to rain.

A different Bangladesh however will desperately want the rain to stay away to showcase their improvement against a team that have won the Champions Trophy twice. And with the pay dispute creeping in the Aussie camp it might also be an ideal opportunity to emulate what they did in Cardiff 12 years ago against Ricky Ponting's all-conquering side.

The good news for Bangladesh is that their batsmen are in good form. Opener Tamim Iqbal hit a magnificent 128 in the opening game against England when the Tigers posted 300-plus score. They will look for another 300-plus scored on belter of a wicket and hope that the bowling comes to the party.

"The wickets are too good for batting. It has got nothing for the bowlers. Our Mustafizur [Rahman] and Australia's Mitchell Starc and South Africa's Rabada are three very good bowlers, but even they are struggling," Bangladesh captain Mashrafe quipped ahead of the pre-match briefing yesterday.

But he felt that Bangladesh has the bowling variation of restricting any team below 300-mark. However, the trend in the tournament has suggests that even 300 is not safe.

The Tigers were actually in a good position to take the score to 330 in their opening game against England, but they lost their way a bit after the departure of Tamim and Mushfiqur Rahim off successive deliveries in the 45th over.

Besides that the decision to play with eight batsmen also back-fired, leaving them with virtually four bowlers. After first game on June 1, a keen follower of Bangladesh cricket remarked that Bangladesh actually played with two-and-a-half bowlers. He actually discounted Shakib Al Hasan for not performing with the ball, and deemed captain Mashrafe as half a bowler.

But after that bitter experience in the opening game, the Bangladesh team management are thinking of including a bowler, who will be either a spinner or pacer.