Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar has challenged his young team to build on Saturday's stunning World Cup win over top-ranked South Africa.
GEORGETOWN/GUYANA: Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar has challenged his young team to build on Saturday's stunning World Cup win over top-ranked South Africa.
When Bangladesh arrived in the Caribbean for the seven-week tournament, they were considered as one of the sides making up the numbers in the 16-team event.
Grouped with former champions India and Sri Lanka in the first round, not many gave them a chance of progressing to the Super Eights.
Despite being identified as a team that could be dangerous on their day, the problem was their day seemed to come round every couple of years.
However, they have proved the critics wrong by winning three of their six World Cup matches to date. While victory over India condemned the 1983 champions to an early flight home, Saturday's stunning 67-run win over South Africa has blown the tournament wide open.
It not only handed a lifeline to struggling teams West Indies and England, who had seemed to be heading out of the tournament, but also pulled Bangladesh into contention for a possible semi-final berth. All three teams have two points.
Bashar now wants to ensure his men keep up the good work.
"This win is very important for us," Bashar said.
"We had the belief we could play good cricket and always believed we could make the Super Eights after we had done something good in the first round. We need to prove ourselves that we can play at this level but we definitely need to play consistently as we don't want to play one good game and then three bad games. We need to be more consistent but the boys have the belief they can do it," he said.
Victories as sweet as the one at Providence Stadium and the one against India in Trinidad last month have boosted the confidence of a largely youthful Bangladesh team, whose average age on Saturday was 23.
Man-of-the-match Mohammad Ashraful, 22, scored 87 from 83 balls and added 76 runs for the fifth wicket with Aftab Ahmed, 21. Exciting opener Tamim Iqbal has just turned 18.
The side's potential is unknown. If they can hold on to coach Dav Whatmore, who has guided them astutely for almost four years, they may rise up the ranks sooner rather than later.
"They are a young team and will improve year by year and the more consistent their players get the better they will become," South Africa captain Graeme Smith said.
"Consistency is going to be a big thing for them going forward. Touring and doing well outside of their own backyard is going to be key. There is a lot of talent there and they could certainly become a very good team."
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