Having faced each other quite a lot recently, very few things will be new and changed when Bangladesh take on West Indies at Taunton in their World Cup tie, but for both sides the game is almost a must win.
The weather forecast is “looking pretty good” for Monday when the match will start at the Cooper Associates County Ground at 10:30am local time, according to Somersetlive.
New Zealand beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in Taunton on June 8 and Australia saw off Pakistan by 41 runs last Wednesday.
Both Bangladesh and West Indies have three points from four matches each, with one win, two losses and one washed out, but the Caribbeans are far behind Bangladesh given their recent face-offs, according to a bdnews24 report.
Bangladesh started their World Cup campaign with a victory over struggling South Africa after having won their first multi-nation series involving West Indies in Ireland.
But skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is not taking West Indies lightly considering that the “reality is not the same” in a series and a tournament like World Cup.
West Indies are capable of crushing any opponents on their day, he believes.
There is no guarantee of a victory even taking into account the fact that the Tigers won seven of the nine last One-Day Internationals against West Indies, he said on the eve of the crucial match.
He says Bangladesh must start the next match from the scratch and there is no alternative to playing well for a win.
"It's a very important match for us, especially after losing s few points in the last three matches," Mashrafe told the pre-match press conference.
West Indies captain Jason Holder also accepted the underdogs tag but played down the significance of their recent run of poor results against Bangladesh.
"If you want to put us in the underdog category, fair enough," Holder told a news conference on Sunday.
"We've played them quite a bit in the past and they've got the better of us, but it's a different occasion and there's lots at stake, so we're all up for it.
"It's a challenge against Bangladesh, so we just want to get over them and move forward," he added.
Mashrafe also said there would be no alternative to winning the match even if the Tigers had one more victory under their belt by now.
The wicket is also worrying him after, he thinks, Bangladesh misread The Oval pitch in the New Zealand game that the Tigers lost by two wickets due to poor batting and fielding.
“If we had read the pitch right during that match, we would have targeted 260-270, and not 300-plus," Mashrafe said.
"There's confusion about the (Taunton) pitch as well. We heard it will be grassy but some are saying that it is usually a flat pitch,” he added.
But finally the pitch assessment is up to the players on the field, according to him.
“The behaviour of a pitch changes as the match progresses,” he said.
