We are eager to win the final; says Mashrafe

Sports Correspondent: Bangladesh will play Sri Lanka in the final of the seven-match Tri-nation ODI series at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

The final of the series will begin at 12:00pm (Bangladesh time).

The Tigers captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza expected from his boys to play the final as that strongly as Sri Lanka played against them on Thursday, for a befitting reply of 10-wickets loss against the visitors.

“We hope that tomorrow [Saturday] they will come face us strongly, and we can also show them a strong reply in return,” the skipper said during a press conference on Friday, ahead of the series final.

Despite he has grief for the only and a huge 10-wicket margin loss in the series against Sri Lanka in their last match, Mashrafe wants to remain positive in this regard as he said, “An accident happened, which is good. It will give us the feel of what we can do during a bad time. We want to remain positive. What I want to say is that we did not come up with strong reply when Sri Lanka played aggressive cricket yesterday.”

The captain suggested his boys to take lesson from that big loss, which was an accident as he thought, and made a call to come up for a strong reply with competitive spirit when they will play the final against Sri Lanka's strong brand of aggressive cricket.

Bangladesh has never tasted a title in any multinational cricket series and focusing on that matter Mashrafew said, “We are eager to win the final. It’s true. If we can, it will be the first time for us. But before the final we don’t want to take extra pressure thinking of it. We are focusing on tomorrow’s match. Though there is pressure always, we want to win the final.”

Bangladesh missed a tri-nation series first in 2009, losing against Sri Lanka in the final and then they lost to Pakistan and India in the Asia Cup final in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal said, “We are now more confident than before. We are not thinking about the results rather focusing on to play good cricket.”

“Bangladesh is strong side at home. They have some good players too. But what we have to do is implication of our game plan,” Chandimal replied to a query when talking to media at the pre-final press conference in Mirpur on Friday.

Bangladesh confirmed their final berth collecting 15 points from four matches with three successive wins before a 10-wicket loss against Sri Lanka the side collected nine points from four outings having two wins with the day’s victory.

Bangladesh started their campaign with an eight-wicket against Zimbabwe and a record 163-run win against Sri Lanka before found Zimbabwe again for a 91-run victory. Sri Lanka lost the first game by 12 runs against Zimbabwe-- the side made the exit from the race -- and found the same side for a five-wicket win.

In their previous 43 ODI encounters, Bangladesh secured only six wins against 35 losses against Sri Lanka. Two matches were ended in no results.

Imrul Kayes has been drafted into the squad, which suggested that he will open the Tigers batting with Tamim Iqbal in place of Anamul Haque, who struggled in the last two matches.

Kusal Perera and Nuwan Pradeep unlikely to be available again as Sri Lankans are likely to field an unchanged XI for the final.

Bangladesh best XI (probable): Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Abul Hasan, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (captain), Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain.

Sri Lanka best XI (probable): Danushka Gunathilaka, Upul Tharanga, Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella,Dinesh Chandimal (captain), Asela Gunaratne, Thisara Perera, Akila Dananjaya, Suranga Lakmal, Lakshan Sandakan and  Dushmantha Chameera.
 

risingbd/Dhaka/January 26, 2018/Porag/A K Azad