TRINIDAD: CRICKET - Sri Lanka and Bangladesh look ahead to their vital World Cup Cricket clash in Port-of-Spain

Former World Cup cricket champions Sri Lanka will take nothing for granted against Bangladesh in Wednesday's (March 21) Group B clash after they rocked the sub-continent pecking order by stunning India. Bangladesh, the least fancied among the three Asian teams in the tournament's toughest group produced a superb all-round display to trigger a three-horse race for Super Eights. With debutants Bermuda having become the group's whipping boys, three teams could finish with two wins apiece and moving to the next stage could come down to net run rate calculations. Sri Lanka crushed Bermuda by 243 runs. India won by a record margin of 257 runs to remain in the race ahead of Friday's (March 23) must-win game against the islanders. The fast-improving Bangladesh, granted test status in 2000, would again pin their hopes on their young guns against a team they beat last February. Teenaged opener Tamim Iqbal, who turned 18 on Tuesday, hit a rapid maiden one-day fifty which had the coach Dav Whatmore stamp, with each shot resembling opener Sanath Jayasuriya's pinch-hitting 11 years ago when Whatmore guided Sri Lanka to Cup glory in 1996. Teenagers Mushfiqur Rahim and Saqibul Hasan also took apart the Indian bowling to notch 50s after paceman Mashrafe Mortaza's four wickets helped bowl out India for 191 on a good batting pitch at Queen's Park Oval. "Probably a little bit premature to be labelling the Bangladesh team like a Sri Lankan cricket team but I'll tell you it was a very significant victory against India and it gives us a reasonable chance to go on and realise our first objective, and that was to get into the Super Eights," Whatmore said. Sri Lanka feel Bangladesh would have no fear because of the number of young players in their ranks. "We always knew that they were tough opposition," Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene said. "Obviously there are a couple of new guys which we haven't seen who have come into the side and added more value to their team. We respect them, definitely, but if we play to our potential and we play the game that we know how to play, the kind of cricket we know how to play, it will be more than enough."

ITN Source | March 21, 2007

Tags:. .fear. .ahead. .apart. .victory. .teenagers