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Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is still hopeful that his team will win a place in the Asia Cup final despite two straight losses.
The Tigers got off to a poor start in the second round of the tournament against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi before conceding a seven-wicket loss to India at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday, reports bdnews24.com.
The upcoming Super Four game against Afghanistan had not been a major concern for Bangladesh, but now much hinges on the crucial game.
“We have to beat Afghans to place ourselves in final”, Mashrafe said at a media briefing after the latest defeat to India.
“We still have two games left in the tournament. We still have the scope to overcome. We will get a day off to prepare further for the next game.”
The captain said the next game would be a challenge, saying it would be more difficult to face wickets in Abu Dhabi than Dubai against the Afghan’s tough spinners. But the captain continues to hope for the best.
“I think it [reaching the final] is still possible. We have no reason to lose hope. It is obviously frustrating to lose two games in a row. But nobody wanted that. Especially the result of this match [against India] disappointed us as we gave more importance on it. But our batting collapsed and that was really frustrating.”
“But we still have chance to recover. One fantastic game can change everything. We still have two more games remaining at this stage, against Afghanistan on Sunday and Pakistan on Wednesday, and we need to win both to earn a spot in the final.”