The weird schedule of the Asia Cup sees Bangladesh and the UAE playing their second match of the tournament on Friday despite Pakistan yet to come into the tournament and already for both these sides it is win or go out.
After both lost their opening match of the event neither can afford to lose again else they will be out of the competition before they have got stuck into the tournament so this is a big match for both nations particularly Bangladesh with them hosting it all.
In fairness to Bangladesh they had their chances against India but a crucial dropped catch off Rohit Sharma was costly and they paid the ultimate price. They bowled pretty well for the first half of the innings and at the death but their batting wasn’t all that hot.
To be fair to UAE they put up a pretty creditable fight against a very strong Sri Lanka side on Thursday and they can take plenty away from that. They need to bat better at the top of the order but if they can do that we saw they have the quality in their attack to get the job done.
I wouldn’t think Bangladesh would rush into wholesale changes for this match but one man who could be under threat for his place is Imrul Kayes. In fairness he has never struck me as a number four batsman but having him in the side just means their star players to follow all bat too low. They could easily shift him on and bring another bowler in here.
I don’t think UAE will panic either. They might make the odd change given that this will be their fifth match in a relatively short space of time and they have plenty more cricket to come but with the recent retirements of the likes of Khurram Khan and Saqib Ali it remains to be seen how deep the pool of talent goes.
We’ve seen both pitches used in this series offer a bit for the seamers so far so that will keep both sides honest here. You would think Bangladesh will win this match just based on experience at this level but you won’t get rich in backing them.
In fact the best way to get rich in this match might be to back their opponents on what looks like an insultingly big handicap especially if they can replicate their performance from the Sri Lanka match.
We’ve seen enough already to suggest that UAE can compete with the ball and generally their batting is good. They struggled against the sheer quality of Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara but they face nothing like that here so I expect another strong UAE showing, one that can keep them very close.
Back UAE (+6.5 wickets/29.5runs) to beat Bangladesh for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
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