Australia appear to hold all the aces, but they won’t be underestimating Bangladesh in their three-match one-day series starting tomorrow.
All three games are being played in Darwin, the series originally scheduled as a Champions Trophy warm-up before that tournament was postponed due to security concerns over the host country Pakistan.
Despite being without captain Ricky Ponting, opener Matthew Hayden and leading paceman Brett Lee, the defending World Cup champions are expected to be far too strong for Bangladesh.
However, Australian seamer Nathan Bracken said they wouldn’t underestimate their opponents, having been beaten by them in Cardiff in 2005.
“They’ve done it before so, yeah, we’ve got to go out and play well,” he said on arriving in Darwin on Wednesday.
“We’re off a break, we’re I guess under a bit of pressure and it’s up to these guys now,” Bracken said.
“It’s up to us to put our hands up and perform well and basically if they play good cricket we have to match it,” he said.
Only two of the Australians who played in the Cardiff match, Australia’s only defeat in 13 one-day matches against Bangladesh, are in their 13-man squad for this series — interim captain Michael Clarke and his deputy, Mike Hussey.
Bracken said he expected the conditions in Darwin to suit his swing bowling.
“The Australian A team said it swung up here a bit early in the morning,” he said.
“So hopefully it we get the chance to bowl early we can utilize that and it would actually give me more of a chance to get a few early wickets and hopefully just bowl well,” Bracken said.
The Australians have lost just six of their last 36 one-day internationals, but were upset by India in their home tri-series finals earlier this year.
Hayden’s absence could allow injury-plagued all-rounder Shane Watson to open the batting, with wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin another option.
Uncapped Tasmanian seamer Brett Geeves was called into the Australian squad to replace Lee and could make his international debut.
Bangladesh, who are coached by former prolific Australian domestic batsman Jamie Siddons, have warmed up with a series of matches in Darwin and shown mixed form.
Captain Mohammad Ashraful has looked in very good touch with the bat and the century maker in the Cardiff upset will be crucial to their chances of another shock win.
Teenager Tamim Iqbal has also looked in good form, while inexperienced 21-year-old Mehrab Hossain warmed up for the series with a fine double of 132 not out and 3-31 in their final practice match on Wednesday.
Australia had a practice match against an Australian Institute of Sport side yesterday.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
LIVERPOOL WIN: The 50th Champions League goal by Mohamed Salah helped the leaders of the Premier League to keep their perfect record intact Real Madrid’s big stars on Tuesday turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant’s faltering UEFA Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win against Serie A leaders Atalanta BC. However, Madrid still had to ride their luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage-time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid’s third win in the competition’s revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. “It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
RSS