Bangladesh will know World Cup fate tomorrow

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – Bangladesh fans will pray for  one more upset win from their team tomorrow to prolong their  World Cup campaign when they take on mighty South Africa in a  must-win Group B match in Dhaka.

Dale Steyn

England’s nerve-jangling victory against West Indies yesterday in Chennai ensured that Bangladesh have to beat the  Proteas in their last round-robin match to reach the  quarter-finals, much to the agony of their fanatical fans.

Bangladesh are tied on six points from five matches with  West Indies, who take on India in their last match on Sunday,  but they are way behind on net run rate and nothing but a win  can take them through to the knock-out stage.

But it will not be easy for the co-hosts against an  extremely confident South African side, who are looking more and  more impressive with each passing day in this World Cup.

The South African bowlers have been an unstoppable force at  the World Cup ensuring that they are the only team to have  flattened every one of their opponents inside 50 overs.

South Africa have had contributions from almost everybody in  the team so far barring captain Graeme Smith, who has averaged  just 22 in the five games.

While AB de Villiers (318 runs), Hashim Amla (248) and JP  Duminy (204) have scored bulk of the runs, spinners Imran Tahir  (11 wickets) and Robin Peterson (10 wickets) and fast bowler  Dale Steyn (10 wickets) have snared most of the wickets.

If Smith chooses tomorrow to return to his best, it will be  curtains for Bangladesh in all probability.

Shakib Al Hasan’s men defeated Ireland and Netherlands  rather easily and topped it up with an upset win over England.

The battery of their left-arm spinners will be the best bet  if they are to stop South Africa from becoming the Group B  winners.

“We have not played our best cricket yet. We can do better  than that and we will try to do that against South Africa,”  opener Tamim Iqbal told reporters in Dhaka.

“If we can make the quarter-finals, it will be great because  that was the team’s target before the tournament.”

In more bad news for Bangladesh, South Africa are expecting  to have de Villiers, Tahir and Steyn available for selection for  tomorrow’s match.

All the players recovered from their respective injuries and  will undergo fitness tests on Friday to confirm their  availability.

“We will have a fully fit 15-man squad to choose from,” a  team spokesperson said in Dhaka.

“It’s been a busy couple of days managing everyone but  they’re all fine now.”