Bangladesh went down fighting by three wickets at Seddon Park in their last Pool A match against New Zealand to finish in fourth place in the group and set up a quarter-final showdown with defending champions India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 19.
Tigers captain Shakib al Hasan insists they have nothing to fear when they tackle India for a place in the World Cup semi-finals after giving in-form New Zealand a huge scare yesterday.
“Obviously we can take this confidence ahead. The way we played I think it’s very good and that will help us in the quarter-final immensely,” said Shakib, who led Bangladesh yesterday in the absence of injured captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza.
“We haven’t thought about the quarter-final yet but it’s going to be exciting and there will be a lot of fans cheering for them. So, we will be ready as this will be our first ever quarter-final.
“To be honest, our first target was to qualify for the quarter-finals. Now it’s a one-off game and if we play well on the day, anything can happen...So, we will prepare ourselves as well as we can and I think the boys will be up for it.”
Shakib said it was disappointing to lose against New Zealand, who now have six wins in six games, in a match in which the cohosts were tested to the hilt as they made a meal of chasing down a 289-run target.
Mahmudullah hit his second successive hundred with a brilliant knock of 128 not out to guide Bangladesh to 288-7 as New Zealand failed for the first time in six games to bowl out their opponents.
“It was disappointing to come up short in this type of match. It was an excellent game and could have gone either way, but in the end they were the better side on the day,” said the left-arm spinner who took 4-55.
It surprised everyone when Bangladesh opened the attack with spinners from both ends, the first team to do so in this World Cup, but the results were miraculous as the two most dangerous Kiwi batsmen – Brendon McCullum (eight) and Kane Williamson (one) – returned in the fifth over bowled by Shakib.
“That was the plan. The ball was holding and took some spin and that worked out but it may not work in other games,” said Shakib who also gave credit to Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor for hanging in there and scoring crucial runs.
Meanwhile, the southpaw praised Mahmudullah, who now has back-to-back World Cup centuries, and looked up to him to produce more goods.
“Mahmudullah is among the top five run-getters of this World Cup, so hopefully he will continue his performance in the quarter-final. He will be proud of himself but at the same time his job is not finished and as a professional team we want him to score another hundred,” Shakib added.
“If Kumar Sangakkara can score four [centuries] in a row, why not Mahmudullah?”
