Shakib eyes two points against Pakistan

Bangladesh captain Shakib al Hasan said now their only target is to snatch two points from Pakistan and they will do their best to achieve that.

Shakib said this during a press conference ahead of Bangladesh’s World Cup match against Pakistan scheduled to take place on Tuesday at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

After a winning start Bangladesh lost five matches in a row to finish their semi-final hopes and the team’s morale was absolutely shattered by an unexpected defeat against Netherlands in their last match.

On the other hand, Pakistan are also having a poor run in the World Cup as they have tasted four consecutive losses after winning the first two matches. They, however, have mathematical chances to reach the quarter-final.

“Target is to play tomorrow's match and try to win, do our best and look for the two points that we are to take. So, we'll try our best to do that,” said Shakib on Monday at the presser.

“We have a very important match tomorrow, which we want to win. Same thing I think goes with Pakistan as well. They want to win as well. So, the team that will play better, will win. We'll try our best to play better than Pakistan so that we can win the match,” added the captain.

When asked about their reaction to the loss against Netherlands, the skipper also said, no matter how much talk they make in the end performance is the only thing that counts.

“We discussed it, we had our team meetings, so we sat down, we talked about it, how can we overcome the situation we are in now, but we have to show it in action. Talk is cheap when it's not working. So, we'll do it on the ground so the action can take care of it and everyone can see it.”

Bangladesh had big hopes prior to the tournament as they qualified here getting the third position in the ODI super league. Shakib, who was outstanding in the last World Cup, was expected to lead the side for great results. But the team was shaken with off the field issues as the spat between two most experienced campaigners Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal became open and the latter axed from the squad.

Shakib, however, said he was determined to do well in the tournament that was in all likelihood his last ODI World Cup. But after the debacle now they are just focusing on gleaning anything they may achieve from the remaining three matches.

“We are here to play the World Cup. Every match is as important as it gets. Tomorrow's match is no different to all other games that we have played or we will play in a few weeks' time. So, we'll take one game at a time. We don't think about anything else other than to be able to perform to the best of our ability for tomorrow's game and we want to do better than Pakistan so that we can win the match.”

Shakib even returned home for a day to practice with his childhood mentor Najmul Abedin before the Netherlands match but things went from bad to worse. However, the captain believed not only him but the whole team had much to show in the remainder of the tournament.

“I think more than me, the whole team talked about what we need to do. There is a lot to play for. As you know, we have to win to be able to qualify for the Champions Trophy. That's an important target I think we can set at this moment and to do that we have to win. We have no other options and that's what we would look to do.”