SPORTS EDGE

Cricket
Star Cricket Asia Cup
Focus on own game
Tigers face India today
TigerCricket.Com, Karachi

Bangladesh cricket captain Mohammad Ashraful runs to catch the ball as teammate Shahriar Nafees Ahmed (R) looks on during a training session in Karachi yesterday. Photo: AFPWith all the media interest reserved for the Indian team, the Bangladesh squad had a calm and quite training session at the National Bank of Pakistan ground near the famed Clifton beach yesterday afternoon. After feeling the heat of Lahore the weather in Karachi has come as a relief for the Bangladesh players who had a couple of hours in the nets with a soothing breeze blowing in from the Arabian Sea.The main worry for the Tigers in this tournament has been the bowling with the pacers in particular going for too many runs both against UAE and Sri Lanka in their Asia Cup Group games in Lahore. Bangladesh new ball bowlers gave away 80 in the first 10 overs against Sri Lanka and 52 against UAE and. Only Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has bowled 17 overs while the two other quicks Shahadat Hossain and Dollar Mahmud have been hit out of the attack and have completed only 21 overs between them. The Tigers have also conceded 24 wides in the two games including 18 in the match against Sri Lanka. Naturally, the bowling dominated the team's preparation for the game against an on-fire India."When you allow the opponents to get to 80 or more in the first ten overs then it becomes almost impossible to get back in the game. We have not bowled as well as we can and have not hit the right areas," said pace spearhead Mashrafe Bin Mortaza who opted to rest yesterday. "If we can get the breakthroughs then the job becomes easier. All batsmen have to take certain risks if they want to score when you are putting the ball in the correct length," Mortaza added.The bowlers and the batsmen were split in two groups and discussed respective strategies for tomorrow's match at the National Stadium during today's team meeting. India are on a roll at the moment and chased down the target of 300 like child's play with 7.5 overs to spare on Thursday but Tigers' skipper Mohammad Ashraful doesn't see that as an ominous sign."They are playing some pretty good cricket and the wicket here suits them. There is hardly anything in the pitch for the bowlers and on a flat track you can be punished if you are not disciplined as a bowler. We are actually thinking of how we can bring our best game tomorrow rather than dwelling on what Indian batsman can do. We are more focused on following the team rule in batting and getting the bowlers to correct the mistakes they made in Lahore," said Ashraful.The four practice pitches at the NBC Ground's practice area are similar in nature to the National Stadium's, informed Sayeed Azad, the curator. "These have been prepared recently and are firm and sporting with good bounce. It will be similar at the National Stadium," said Azad who as a batsman had played club cricket in Dhaka for Agrani Bank in the mid-90s and appeared in 6 ODIs for Pakistan.The batsmen had short but solid sessions in the nets and Ashraful felt the team's batting is starting to become more consistent."The hard work the batsmen have done is paying off little by little. All of us have made some runs recently and I hope this will continue in the coming games. We have beaten India before and it is possible again if we click in all departments." Bangladesh have not named the team for today and will wait till the toss.