The last match of the qualifying phase of the T20 World Cup is ironically a straight knockout to get into another group stage as Oman and Bangladesh know whoever wins their Dharamsala clash will advance to the main draw.
Both sides won their opening match in the competition. Bangladesh just about had too much for the Netherlands while Oman came from the clouds to shock Ireland in the game of the tournament so far. Oman have to win here as Bangladesh would qualify with a washout.
Bangladesh had plenty of positivity and momentum going into the tournament after their run in the Asia Cup and they just need a repeat of their bowling performance against the Netherlands and they will be back among the big boys in the main draw of this competition.
Oman will need to overcome the highs of their win over Ireland on Wednesday but they have nothing to lose and they can give this everything they’ve got. If Zeeshan Maqsood is on a going day he could give Oman a chance but they need everyone to be at their best if they are to be competitive.
I don’t envisage any changes to the side Bangladesh named against Ireland in their last match. Arafat Sunny has now left the camp to have his bowling action assessed so he will definitely be missing and Mustafiqur Rahman is still recovering from injury.
It would be a really big surprise if Oman were to change their team after the biggest win in their history so barring any late minute injuries or illnesses we should expect the same XI to go onto the field.
The trend of the Dharamsala leg of this tournament has been the rains and sadly more of them are forecast throughout this match so if we do get play we might be looking at a shortened game which isn’t ideal.
You would think the shorter the game the more chance Oman have and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that notion but even then Bangladesh are a really good side and given that a couple of their middle order batsmen are out of form they might not mind a shorter match themselves.
I don’t see Bangladesh losing this match unless Duckworth Lewis comes into play and messes them around like the impact it had in the Scotland vs Hong Kong game on Saturday.
Clearly we’re not going to get very rich backing Bangladesh here but with Tamim Iqbal in such good touch at the minute and the chance of a shortened game which means if he gets going there may not be time for others in the Bangladeshi ranks to usurp him, one way of finding a bit of value could be for Bangladesh to win and Tamim to top score.
That was the scenario in Bangladesh’s first game and Tamim would have top scored in the second game which surely Bangladesh were on the way to winning. I’ll chance he completes a group stage hat trick.
WON – Back Bangladesh to win and T.Iqbal Top Bangladesh Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Ladbrokes
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