Desk Report:
Before going to play in the Asia Cup, Zaker Ali Anik and Taskin Ahmed spoke with a strong voice about becoming champions. Bangladesh, led by Liton Das, started the tournament with a 7-wicket win against Hong Kong. But Bangladesh suffered a major setback after being crushed by Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh lost to Sri Lanka by 6 wickets last night in Abu Dhabi. Net run rate has become a bigger issue here than the loss. Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh each have 2 points. But due to the negative net run rate (-0.650), Liton’s team is third in the ‘B’ group points list. The net run rates of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, who are in the first two, are +4.70 and +2.595. Zaker came to the press conference as Bangladesh’s representative after the bad loss. The 27-year-old middle-order batter said, ‘We did not come to the tournament just to play matches. We came to become champions. We cannot lose hope by losing one match.’
Bangladesh’s remaining match in the group stage of the Asia Cup is now against Afghanistan. There is no need to repeat how formidable the Afghans are under the leadership of Rashid Khan. They started their 2025 Asia Cup campaign by defeating Hong Kong by 94 runs. Even though the opponent is Afghanistan, Zakir is not afraid. This Bangladeshi middle-order batter said, “We will play to win. We will have the same mentality. We came with the mentality of winning in this match (Sri Lanka) too, but it didn’t happen. We will go with the mentality of winning in the next match (Afghanistan) too.”
After losing the toss, Bangladesh elected to bat first and lost 2 wickets for 0 runs. Liton’s team could not even score any runs in the first two overs. Zakir-Shamim’s unbroken partnership of 86 runs for the sixth wicket of 61 balls and 139 runs was not enough, which was proven by the victory with 32 balls left for the Sri Lankans. At the award ceremony after the match, the Bangladesh captain said, “We lost the match in the powerplay. If you want to win the match by scoring 140 runs on a good wicket, you have to bowl and field well. We couldn’t do that. The match against Afghanistan has now become a life-or-death match.’
The Bangladesh-Afghanistan match will start at 8:30 PM Bangladesh time in Abu Dhabi the day after tomorrow. For the Afghans, this is the second match of the group stage. Sri Lanka will play against Hong Kong tomorrow. This match will be held in Dubai. The Sri Lankans will play their last match of the group stage in Abu Dhabi on September 18.
