Tigers’ desperate for victory in ‘Warrior’ Mash’s last world cup match



Sports Desk, Barta24.com
Bangladesh cricketers in training

Bangladesh cricketers in training

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Bangladesh will be desperately seeking a win over Pakistan in their final World Cup encounter at Lord’s.

Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes played down the hype around the last World Cup match for Mashrafe Mortaza.

Rhodes said, "I often use the word ‘Warrior’, but he goes to war for the team and people respect that, understand that, and they love him because of that.”

It will be the last World Cup game for Mashrafe and the skipper and the Tigers will have to move on if he is not available for the proposed Sri Lanka tour in August.

"The players in the dressing room do love Mash. He has said it's his last World Cup and it'll be emotional for him

"Hopefully, the boys will give him the right sort of respect playing his last game in the World Cup but then most importantly we'll concentrate on the match."

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza

Bangladesh are already out of the race for a spot in the semifinals after the defeat to India. A win against Pakistan will make the Tigers the top among those who have failed to make it to the top four.

Having been defeated by Bangladesh in their past four meetings, Pakistan are now placed fifth on the table this World Cup, behind New Zealand who occupy the fourth and final knockout berth.

The 1992 champions face a near impossible task to qualify for the semifinals: to bat first against Bangladesh and win by a margin of at least 316 runs to jump ahead of the Kiwis on net run rate.

Rhodes, however, is not ready to call it a match of formalities as Pakistan are also seeking at least a win to avenge the end of their unbeaten run by Bangladesh in the 1999 World Cup and a happy ending this time.

The two teams have not seen much of each other of late. They have only played four times since the last World Cup and Bangladesh have won all of those matches, including their last meeting in the 2018 Asia Cup. Overall, however, Pakistan have won 31 of the 36 meetings between them, with their only other loss to Bangladesh coming way back in 1999.

   

Bangladesh Team announced with Taskin as vice-captain



Sports Desk, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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There was concern about Taskin Ahmed as he got injured at the last minute. But that apprehension remained in the end apprehension. Taskin is in the team, but Bangladesh announced the 15-member World Cup team today by making him the vice-captain.

Chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain announced the names of the team members at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium. There are no big surprises in the Bangladesh team. Taskin Ahmed is in the team, who is a bit worried due to injury. However, pace bowling all-rounder Saifuddin, who was talked about returning to the Zimbabwe series after 18 months before the World Cup, did not have a place in the end.

Spinner Tanveer Islam has survived considering the conditions of the World Cup. He will play the World Cup for the first time. Liton Kumar Das, who was dropped in the last two matches due to poor performance in the Zimbabwe series, has survived another round. The selectors have trusted him because of his experience.

Pacer Hasan Mahmud and all-rounder Afif Hossain Dhrubo have been called to the team as reserves. Two more players will be picked up for the three-match T20I series against hosts USA before the World Cup although the names of those two have not been announced yet.

Bangladesh Squad:

Nazmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Taskin Ahmed (Vice-Captain), Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Tanjid Hasan Tamim, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad, Tawheed Hriday, Tanveer Islam, Zaker Ali Anik, Sheikh Mehdi, Rishad Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shariful Islam, Tanjim Hasan Shakib.

Traveling Reserve: Hasan Mahmud and Afif Hossain Dhrubo. 

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Sunrisers’ history by winning the match playing only 58 balls



Sports Desk, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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Awesome, incredible, superhuman - these are the words that must have been repeated in your mouth after watching Sunrisers Hyderabad bat this season of IPL. Why not? The Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma pair is making one after another feat with the bat. In this season, Hyderabad has already achieved the feat of collecting the highest total in the history of IPL. This time they have also made the record of chasing the biggest target by playing the least number of balls.

Hyderabad reached the target of 166 runs given by Lucknow Supergiants in a total of 9.4 overs or 58 balls. No one else has achieved such a feat in recognized men's T20.

Lucknow won the toss and decided to bat first at Hyderabad's home ground. They could not take advantage in the first 10 overs under the influence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. At this time the scoreboard accumulated 57 runs for 3 wickets. However, in the second half of the innings, Caribbean batter Nicholas Puran and Ayush Badoni got the fighting capital of 99 runs. Their run in 20 overs stood at 165 for 4 wickets.

Ayush remains unbeaten on 55 off 30 balls with 9 fours, Puran's 48* off 26 balls. Hyderabad pacer Bhuvneshwar took 2 wickets at the cost of 12 runs after completing the quota of 4 overs.

In IPL, the fountain of runs is running in almost every match, but the collection of 165 runs is not insignificant. A good bowling attack has a pattern of success with this group of targets. But where the bowlers of Lucknow could do 'good bowling'!

Chasing 166 runs, Hyderabad's two openers Head and Abhishek's bat became the open sword. Head scored 89 runs with four sixes from 30 balls. Abhishek hit 75 off 28 balls with an even number of fours and two less sixes.

With their superhuman batting, Hyderabad took a step closer to the playoffs with a big 10-wicket victory. With this victory, their points from 12 matches are now 14, and they are third in the table. 

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Bangladesh defeats sloppy Zimbabwe



Sports Desk, Barta24.com
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There was a forecast of rain in Chattogram at eight o'clock on Friday night. As predicted, the rain appeared shortly after 8pm. The match started after a short pause. After some time it rained again. Bangladesh won easily in the first T20I of the five-match series against Zimbabwe in two phases of rain. Bangladesh beat Sikandar Raja's team by 8 wickets.

Bangladesh lost Liton Das at the beginning when they came to bat for the target of 125 runs given by Zimbabwe. He got back bowled by Blessing Mujarabani after scoring 1 run from 3 balls. However, the other opener Tanjid Tamim and captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto kept the wheel running by making a pair of 52 runs despite the rain in two phases.

When the game started after rain-interruption in the second round, Tamim and Shanto started playing frantically. Tamim saw a 36-ball fifty after getting life twice due to the failure of the Zimbabwean fielders. After fifty he got one more life. In the end, after winning the team by scoring 67 runs from 47 balls, this batsman, who was anointed in T20 cricket with this match, left the field.

Shanto, however, was not so 'lucky'. The Bangladesh captain returned to the palm of Shaun Williams at deep midwicket off Luke Jongwe for a personal 21 runs. Tawhid Hriday made an important contribution to the team's victory in a 18-ball 33-run innings. Bangladesh reached the target with 28 balls to spare.

Earlier, after losing the toss scored 124 runs in 20 overs facing terrific Taskin – Saifuddin attack. Taskin took 3 wickets for 14 runs, Saifuddin also took 3 wickets with one run more. Spinner Sheikh Mehdi Hasan got two wickets.

Zimbabwe, who lost 7 wickets for 41 runs in a batting collapse, collected a hundred in the eighth wicket in the fighting pair of Clive Madande and Wellington Masakadza. The visitors capitalized on their 75-run stand. The highest 43 runs for the team came with the bat of wicketkeeper-batter Madand. 

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"That" Mohsin Sheikh was appointed for full term



Sports Desk, Barta24.com
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Mohsin Sheikh has been appointed as the Performance Analyst of Bangladesh National Cricket Team. This is not the first time the Pakistani-born Australian has worked with Shanto-Litton in the New Zealand series last year.

But that was a part-time job. BCB has appointed him as a performance analyst on a full-time basis. Mohsin was appointed to this post on contract till May 2026.

It is known that Mohsin will join the team soon. Bangladesh's five-match T20 series against Zimbabwe will begin on May 3. He will join the Bangladesh team in the field of that series.

Mohsin Shaikh's experience as a performance analyst is not less. He also spent time with the Afghanistan, Pakistan and Australia cricket boards before working with Bangladesh on the tour of New Zealand last December.

Apart from this, Mohsin has also competed in various T20 leagues around the world. He has vast experience of working as a performance analyst in top leagues like Bangladesh Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Indian Premier League and Australian Big Bash.



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