Sports Desk:

Bangladesh will be looking to strengthen their chances to qualify for the Super Eight stage of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup when they take on Netherlands in their third Group D match at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St Vincent today.

The match is scheduled to start at 08:30pm (BST) and will be telecast live on Nagorik TV.

Bangladesh are currently placed second in their five-team group with two points from as many games and a win against Netherlands in today’s crucial match will increase their chances to make it to the last eight of the tournament.

South Africa have already confirmed their Super Eight berth from this group after they won three matches on a trot respectively against Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Bangladesh.

Netherlands are currently in the third position with two points from two matches while Nepal and Sri Lanka are the bottom-placed teams in this group with one point each.

Nepal are still in contention along with Bangladesh and Netherlands to reach the next round as they have two games to play in the group but Sri Lanka, who already have played three games, are very much out of the competition after their all-important game against Nepal was washed out due to rain in Florida on Wednesday.

The Tigers, who delivered a nightmarish performance in the buildup of the tournament when they lost a three-match T20 series to USA by a 1-2 margin, made a terrific comeback by beating Sri Lanka by two wickets in their World Cup opener in Dallas on 8 June.

Bangladeshi bowlers played the most crucial part in their win against Sri Lanka as they successfully restricted their opponents to a below 130-run total which the Tigers chased down with one over to spare.

Bangladesh had got into a position to beat South Africa in their second match as well but they fell short of the South Africa’s total by just four runs in a thrilling encounter in New York on Monday.

The performance of the Bangladeshi pace bowling unit is giving them high hopes of surpassing their previous World Cup records after the pace trio – Taksin Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Mustafizur Rahman took 11 wickets between them in the opening two games.

Bangladesh got another good news before the Netherlands game as their left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam bowled with full pace during Wednesday’s practice session and he is expected to be available for selection in today’s encounter.

The worrying thing for the Bangladesh team is the performance of their top-order batsmen who failed to deliver on both occasions in the tournament by getting reduced to 28-3 and 50-4 while chasing below-par targets against Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively.

Ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is yet to shine in the tournament as the talismanic cricketer could only make 11 runs and take one wicket in the first two games and Bangladesh will desperately want their most experienced campaigner to perform with both the ball and ball during their match against Netherlands.

Bangladesh have previously played four T20I against the European team and they came victorious in three matches while they lost the other one.

However, during the previous two encounters between the two sides in the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh finished on the winning side on both occasions in 2016 and 2022 respectively.

Meanwhile, Netherlands will be hoping to stage a similar upset like what they did in the ICC World Cup 2023 in India when they beat Bangladesh by 87 runs at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

The Dutch have already made their mark in the ongoing tournament by clinching a win over Nepal in their tournament opener before they went down fighting against South Africa in their second match.