Sports Desk:

Bangladesh will be looking to avoid further embarrassment in the ongoing three-match series against USA when they take on the hosts in the third and last game at the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston on Saturday.

The match is scheduled to start at 09:00pm (BST) and will be telecast live on Nagorik TV. The visitors have already suffered a series defeat against the 19th-ranked T20 side in the world after they lost the opening two games respectively by five wickets and six runs at the same venue.

In both games, Bangladesh exhibited disastrous performance in all three departments and the hosts grabbed the opportunity in both hands to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

Bangladeshi batters are yet to produce any notable performance in the ongoing series and it had a big contribution to their defeats to USA, who were playing their maiden series against the sub-continental side.

Meanwhile, the bowling and fielding departments of the Tigers also looked to be toothless in the opening two games which meant Bangladesh still have a lot of issues to solve before going into the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to start in USA and West Indies from 2 June.

“Certainly it is disappointing and we didn’t expect it but we must give credit to USA team for the way they have played,” Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan told reporters after the second match.

“I mean it’s a team game and you know everyone has to take the responsibility like you win as a team and you lose as a team. I don’t want to blame any particular person or any particular department. It’s just that T20 is such a format you have to play very good cricket in all three departments to win against any team.

“There are no small or big teams in T20 cricket and that’s why it is more exciting than any other format and that’s the proof of the last two games the way USA played,” he added.

Meanwhile, Shakib said that the series defeat against USA might be a wake-up call for the Tigers before they feature in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup.

Bangladesh have been drawn in tough Group D alongside Sri Lanka, South Africa, Nepal and Netherlands and they need at least three wins to qualify for the Super Eight of the tournament.

“Any match you lose as a team is disappointing and you don’t want to lose a game and obviously it is very disappointing. But having said that we have to play the World Cup and this series might be a wake-up call for us as we haven’t played the way we played,” he said.

“I don’t think we took them lightly in the first game. Maybe we couldn’t do what we wanted to do and in the second game, exactly the same thing happened. We couldn’t execute the plans that we were supposed to do on the ground,” he added.

Meanwhile, USA will be looking to inflict more misery on Bangladesh when they take them on the field in the dead-rubber contest.

USA achieved their biggest success in history when they beat Bangladesh in a three-match series and they will be looking to humiliate them with a clean sweep result by registering a victory in the last game.