Handed a rude shock in their T20 World Cup opener, Bangladesh will have to sort some self-confessed batting problems and play as per their reputation in a must-win game against upbeat hosts Oman here on Tuesday.
Bangladesh came into the tournament as the sixth-ranked team which had beaten New Zealand and Australia at home. However, they were were found wanting against a spirited Scotland on Sunday and lost the game by six runs due to an ordinary batting performance.
Bangladesh were expected to run away with it after reducing Scotland to 53 for six but the pressure of the big stage perhaps got the the better of them. Skipper Mahmudullah blamed the batters for the unexpected loss and said they must perform better against Oman, who thrashed Papua New Guinea in their opener.
Bangladesh need to win on Tuesday to keep themselves in contention for a spot in the Super-12 stage.
"As a batting unit, we have disappointed ourselves, so it's a big concern, and we need to see things where we have made those mistakes and probably need to try not to repeat those mistakes in the next game," said Mahmudullah.
Bangladesh bowlers were brilliant at the start of the game but should not have allowed their opponents to score 140 from the very precarious situation. With pitches expected to remain on the slower side, stroke making will not be easy and the batters will have to find a way to get the boundaries and those quick singles.
More will be expected from Bangladesh openers Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar who failed on Sunday. Star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was far from his best with the bat and will be expected to find his rhythm against Oman.
Tournament co-hosts Oman, on the other hand, enjoyed a near perfect start to their World Cup campaign with a 10-wicket rout of PNG.
Captain Zeeshan Maqsood led from the front taking a four wicket haul with his left-arm spin.
Oman will be high on confidence against the much more experienced Bangladesh. Indian-origin Jatinder Singh was the star with the bat, smashing an unbeaten 73 off 42 balls to take his team to an emphatic win.
Talking about the Bangladesh challenge, Maqsood said: "Definitely every game is a tough game and yeah, we won the game, and it doesn't mean we should take rest and feel easy and comfortable.
"Bangladesh is a Test side, and they have plenty of good players. They have more experience to play in such a big stage. And we have to just take this win as a positive note and we have to play every game day-by-day, what is our -- what is in front of us, we cannot say."
Teams:
Bangladesh: Mahmudullah (C), Liton Das, Mohammed Naim, Mahedi Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Nurul Hasan (WK), Afif Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Shamim Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammed Saifuddin.
Oman: Zeeshan Maqsood (c), Aqib Ilyas, Jatinder Singh, Khawar Ali, Mohammad Nadeem, Ayaan Khan, Suraj Kumar, Sandeep Goud, Nester Dhamba, Kaleemullah, Bilal Khan, Naseem Khushi, Sufyan Mehmood, Fayyaz Butt, Khurram Nawaz Khan.
Match starts 7.30 PM IST.
