Bangladesh are in pole position of reaching the Super Eight of the ICC T20 World Cup as they take on Nepal in their final Group D match in St Vincent on Monday.
With South Africa having already qualified from the group with maximum eight points from four games and Sri Lanka and Nepal being eliminated, Bangladesh and the Netherlands are fighting for the remaining Super Eight spot in the group.
The match will start at 5:30am Bangladesh Standard Time, and Nagorik TV will televise the game live.
The Tigers, who have four points from three games, are in control of their own qualification destiny. After beginning with a close win over Sri Lanka, they missed a golden opportunity in the thriller against South Africa in New York, in a game that they could and probably should have won.
But Thursday鈥檚 win over the Dutch means that they are in prime position to join South Africa in the second round.
A win over Nepal would seal it, and even defeat may not prove terminal depending on how the Netherlands go against Sri Lanka, along with net run rate permutations.
On the other hand, the Netherlands, who have two points from three games, must beat Sri Lanka in their final group game if they are to stand any chance of qualifying, but that will only be enough if other results go their way, including Bangladesh losing to Nepal, and if they can pull off a significant net run rate swing. It鈥檚 unlikely but not impossible.
If the Tigers get through, they would make it to the next stage of the competition for the first time since 2007 in South Africa.
All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who returned to form by playing an unbeaten 64 off 46 balls against the Netherlands, said that they were confident of defeating Nepal and qualifying for the second round.
鈥楾he position we are in, we should feel confident. There is no reason we shouldn鈥檛 feel confident. So obviously, it will be a very important game. And I hope the way we are contributing as a team and performing as a team, we can do the same thing against Nepal,鈥� said Shakib after their victory against the Netherlands.
Bangladesh have played only once against Nepal in this format of the game, and that was in the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, when the Tigers thrashed their opponent by eight wickets.
Considering Nepal鈥檚 performance in their match against South Africa on Friday, it is expected that they would give the Tigers a hard time after they suffered a one-run defeat in a final ball thriller.
Nepal captain Rohit Paudel said the fight against South Africa will give them a lot of confidence going into the Bangladesh game.
鈥業 think we are aware of that situation, especially if we won today鈥檚 game, it would be a very clear knockout game for Bangladesh and our games. So, apart from that, I think the next game we鈥檒l play for pride,鈥� he said after the match.
鈥楨specially, we wanted to beat a Test playing country. Eventually, it didn鈥檛 happen today. So, we want to do that in the next game. So, the confidence which today we got, so we want to carry that,鈥� Paudel added.
