Bangladesh - Tipped for a surprise quarter-finals berth

19th March 2010, Mirpur

Bangladesh crashed and burnt out of the World Cup in front of their shattered home fans after South Africa handed out a 206 run defeat.

Earlier, losses to India and West Indies had curtailed Bangladesh's progress. Their only shining moment was defeating England by 2 wickets.

Imran Kayes (188 runs at 37.0) and Tamim Iqbal (157 runs at 2.17) were the only noteworthy batting contributions. Skipper Shakib Al Hasan contributed with the bat and ball, but the rest of the squad did little of note with only 4 fifties and no hundreds posted in familiar home conditions.

12th Feb 2011, Dhaka: Preview of Bangladesh

Predicted win odds: 40%

Building on a stunning first up win in the World Cup over Pakistan in 1999 (despite the rumblings of match fixing), and equally impressive wins over India and South Africa in 2007, Bangladesh bring recent ODI form into this world cup.

Captain Shakib Al Hasan thinks his side can reach the quarterfinals. They are well coached by Jamie Siddons of Australia. Bangladesh have a World Cup win-loss record of 5-14, with 1 no result.

Strengths: The batting stars Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful are capable of scoring fast in familiar conditions. They have packed their team with spinners in Shakib, Abdur Razzak, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam and Suhrawadi Shuvo. The young Bangladesh team are also tyros in the field.

Weaknesses: Bangladesh lack bowling depth to contain free scoring teams. Mashrafe Mortaza cried out due to a knee injury with the backup pacemen not quite upto scratch.

Bangladesh World Cup squad: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Abdur Razzak, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Naeem Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Roqibul Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Shahriar Nafees, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Tamim Iqbal

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