Tigers keen to improve T20 WC record

 DHAKA -Bangladesh are keen to improve their record in the Twenty20 World Cup after being out of the semifinal race following their three straight defeats at the Super 12 phase.

   Head coach Russell Domingo said that the win in the last two matches will
be big stepping stone for the Bangladesh and hence they are reluctant to give
up the hopes.

   Bangladesh will take on South Africa and Australia in the next two
matches-of which they will play against Domingo's country South Africa
tomorrow. Bangladesh could never beat South Africa in T20 format after
playing six matches, so beating them for the time will be huge, Domingo
added.

   Moreover the Tigers so far won just one game in the second phase of the
T20 World Cup and that only victory came against West Indies in 2007.

   "Look, I think Bangladesh have only won one game in the second phase of
the T20 World Cup ever. So there's an opportunity to improve on that record.
To try and win two games will be a big stepping stone for us. There's a lot
to play for in the next two games," Domingo said today.

   "Our focus is entirely on tomorrow before we get to the last game against
Australia. We first need to try to open our account tomorrow. So our
performance tomorrow is really important."

   Mathematically Bangladesh's chance to reach semifinal is still there but
for that a lot of things should happen, which is almost impossible.

   But the situation could have been in Bangladesh's favour had they played
well in the crunch moment in the game against Sri Lanka and West Indies. In
those two games, Bangladesh had a genuine chance to win the match.

   Domingo admitted that they should learn well to close out the game.

   "I know the results haven't been great. We've played against Sri Lanka.
We've played against West Indies and England, all three past champions, all
three tough sides. In two of those games we probably were on top for 80 to 90
percent of those games," he said.

   "We've got to look at the positives. We've got to look at the areas that
we did really well. And there were a lot of good areas in those particular
games where we had the West Indies under pressure. We had Sri Lanka under
pressure. We were in good position with the bat. We didn't finish or fail
with the bat against the West Indies. We didn't finish or fail with the ball
against Sri Lanka."

   Domingo went on to saying: "We've got to focus on the positive aspects
there and then try to limit the mistakes we've made. We know we've made
mistakes at crucial stages. But if you look at the age group in our side, I
think we come into this World Cup with the youngest average aged player, guys
like Naim, Afif, Shoriful, Mahedi, they're all young players."

   Domingo still believes that Bangladesh could beat any team in this format
if they can keep the process right.

   "I think every single game we play to win, and we know there's obviously
an obsession with winning and a disappointment when you don't win. I think
our focus is very much on our process and how we've got to go about trying to
achieve that win. Of course everybody, every single game they play, we're
trying to win. But if you are just focusing on that, you maybe lose track of
the things you need to do well in order to get that win," he remarked.

   "So I think tomorrow's game in particular we need to focus on our
particular skills, our processes, the disciplines you want to try to and
bring into the game. If you do that, hopefully the result goes all right," he
added.

   Shakib though was key in helping Bangladesh reach Super 12 phase after a
shocking loss to Scotland in the tournament opener, he was ruled out of the
tournament due to hamstring injury.

   However his performance was not up to the mark in the Super 12 phase and
so as the fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman. Both of the players came to this
World Cup after playing IPL in which they had to stay in bio-bubble. Both of
them looked off colour and fatigued in the Super 12 phase. Their mediocre
performance believed to let Bangladesh down in the Super 12.

   When asked about their fatigue, Domingo said: "I can't comment on how
Shakib and Mustafiz are feeling, that's probably a question only they can
answer.

   All I can say is when you are losing there will always be things you can
look at and point towards, and I don't think we're in a position to do that."

   "We know we've made mistakes at crucial stages, and we cannot shift the
blame to anything else but to ourselves. So we will take responsibility for
that. Bubble life has been odd. I know I've been home for five weeks this entire year. So it has been challenging."BSS