Ireland 130/7 (20/20 ov)
Bray-30(29), Mooney-23(20), Benn:2-24(4).
West Indies 134/1 (16.0/20 ov)
Gayle-88(56), Sarwan-25(23), MaCallan:1-30(3).
West Indies won by 9 wickets (with 24 balls remaining)
| ||
| | ||
Ashraful has said Bangladesh's main objective is to qualify for the Super Eights of the World Twenty20 which begins on June 5. They play their first game on June 6 against India, the current champions, whom they famously beat in the 2007 World Cup.
"In this form of the game any side can beat the other," Ashraful told reporters at Lord's. "We defeated the West Indies in the last World T20 in South Africa and progressed to the Super Eight. Our main goal is to repeat that and if we beat India, who are the world champions, in the first match then we will fancy our chances of doing well against the top sides and making the semi-finals even."
Barring the upset win over West Indies in the last World Twenty20, Bangladesh had a disappointing tournament, losing their other four games by fairly convincing margins. However, Ashraful, who had a poor run himself, averaging 17.40 in five games, was confident of putting up a better show this time. "We have come here one week early, had three games against New Zealand, Holland and Scotland and the boys have done well," he said. "We are confident and there are two tough games against Australia tomorrow and Sri Lanka the day after. So that's a nice build-up to the main tournament."
One of the Bangladesh players who has impressed in the warm-ups has been the seamer, Rubel Hossain. He returned figures of 4 for 19 against Holland, and 5 for 16 against Scotland. "He has taken nine wickets in two matches and is bowling really well. He has an awkward action and has bit of extra pace," Ashraful said of Rubel.
He also backed his deputy Mashrafe Mortaza to come good after a disappointing solitary game in the IPL, where he conceded 58 runs in four overs for Kolkata Knight Riders, including 27 in the decisive final over of the contest. "It was only in the last over that he did badly. Otherwise I thought he was okay. But I know he'll be back. He is that type of a player. He always does well against India."
Ireland is the other team that Bangladesh must face in the group stage, and having lost to them at the 2007 World Cup they might have reason to be cautious. But Ashfraful was confident of averting a repeat. "I think if we play our best cricket then we should not have a problem against Ireland because we have more quality in the side."
Bangladesh take on Australia in their next warm-up game on Monday.
Less than three months after their team bus came under terrorist gunfire in Lahore, members of the Sri Lankan cricket team have withdrawn from a scheduled visit to Oxford due to security concerns.
Muttiah Muralidharan, Kumar Sangakkara and team manager Brendon Kuruppu informed the Oxford Union debating society on Friday they feared a backlash after a front-page story in The Times in which it was claimed that 20,000 Tamil civilians had been killed in recent hostilities between government troops and LTTE.
The Sri Lankans arrived in England this week ahead of the World Twenty20; their first international assignment since the attack outside the Gadaffi Stadium, which claimed the lives of eight security and transport personnel and wounded seven players and coaching staff. Muralitharan, who is himself a Tamil, had been due, along with Sangakkara and Kuruppu, to deliver an oration at the Oxford Union - following in the footsteps of US presidents and other heads of state - but the visit was scrapped due to uneasiness over security arrangements.
