Tigers Out to Stun South Africa for a Memorable Debut in SCG

Emboldened by excellent fast bowling group which has recently risen impeccably, Bangladesh looked determined to keep up the winning spree as they take on South Africa in their second match of T20 World Cup's Super 12s at Sydney Cricket Ground tomorrow (Thursday), reports BSS.

The match starts at 9 AM Bangladesh time and will be aired live of Gazi TV and T Sports Channel.

There is additional motivation for Bangladesh---they will play their first match at the Australia's oldest cricket ground in any format of the cricket.

Therefore, they want to make their maiden match memorable here at this stadium, affectionately called as SCG which was opened in 1848 and hosted its first cricket match in 1882.

Thanks to their fast bowling group, Bangladesh made a winning start in T20 World Cup, beating Netherlands by 9 runs in their first match in Hobart. It was their first win at the main round of the T20 World Cup since their victory against West Indies in the inaugural edition.

Taskin Ahmed led the victory with his career-best 4-25 and was ably supported by new fast bowling sensation Hasan Mahmud. Another pacer Mustafizur Rahman though hadn't any wicket to show, his economical bowling seemed to bring back his best after an ordinary show in the last one year.

Bangladesh indeed were no match against South Africa in the previous seven games as they lost all of those matches without much resistance. Moreover since the last T20 World Cup in 2021, they failed to beat any top teams but still they oozed with confidence, largely due to South Africa's poor luck in the major tournament like World Cup.

Like Bangladesh, South Africa also could have made a winning start against Zimbabwe but the rain in Hobart after Bangladesh-Netherlands match, forced them to share points. After losing a point, now they need a victory against Bangladesh badly before taking on the giants like India and Pakistan. The immense pressure of winning the match could give Bangladesh an edge, which captain Shakib Al Hasan believes.

"They will be in immense pressure because for them it's a kind of do or die match," Shakib said here today.

"A win is also important for us. But South Africa lost a point and they would want to make it up. They will be desperate, which can give us an edge."

Shakib admitted South African fast bowling group is dangerous but he is confident that Bangladeshi batting line up would deal with them successfully.

"Yes they have a great fast bowling attack. Even though we have no success against them in this format but in other format our batters handled them successfully of late. So it's a thing that would give us the boost we need to beat them."

However, having said that he believes Bangladesh must address the vulnerable batting which experienced a collapse even against an inexperienced bowling line up of Netherlands. Most of the top order batters found the start but simply couldn't carry. However such sort of batting could be fatal against the world class bowling line up of South Africa.

Bangladesh tend to keep up the winning combination always, which indicated they would field an unchanged XI against South Africa.

Overall Bangladesh played 140 T20 Internationals and while they won 48 matches, they had lost 89 matches. Three other matches ended in no result.

Squad:

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Afif Hossain, Mossadek Hossain, Liton Das, Yasir Ali, Nurul Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Najmul Hossain, Nasum Ahmed and Soumya Sarkar.

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (captain), Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Reeza Hendricks, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Rillee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen.