Australia Take on Bangladesh in Quest For Super 8 Berth

Bridgetown: Determined to win the only trophy missing from their cupboard, formidable Australia face potential giant-killers Bangladesh in their second and final Group A match for a place in the Super Eight stage of the Twenty20 World Cup here on Wednesday.

With a morale-boosting win over defending champions Pakistan under their belt in the tournament-opener, Australia are aiming to shed the tag of being Twenty20 duds.

Skipper Michael Clarke, leading the team in his first major international tournament, has claimed that the Aussies have improved a lot over the past one year and the results here would reflect that.

Dirk Nannes continues to grow as a fast bowler and will enjoy running in at the Bangladesh' players, who often struggle with shorter balls. He has played only six T20s for Australia since swapping from the Netherlands last year, and has taken at least a wicket in every innings, including 3 for 41 on Sunday.

"There's extra motivation from within the squad, we want to perform better in Twenty20 cricket then we have in general. I think our form has improved over the last 12 months and we've started really well," Clarke has said.

"The key is going to be adapting to conditions and I think we've got a really good squad to do that."

But having lost by a run to Zimbabwe in a practice match, Clarke is well aware of the pitfalls of taking Bangladesh lightly.

The Tigers, as Bangladesh are popularly known, have a history of upstaging big teams in big tournaments.

The best chance Bangladesh have is if Tamim Iqbal takes off. Tamim is capable of gorging on attacks and seems perfectly suited to Twenty20, but has struggled to go on and has a top score of 32 in 14 matches. A strike-rate of 93.68 is also well below par for a batsman of such aggressive quality and his country will be willing him to stand tall against Australia.

"We certainly would not be taking Bangladesh lightly. They've got some wonderful Twenty20 players who are very aggressive with the bat," said a cautious Clarke.

On paper, however, Australia are hands down favourites. A batting line-up studded with Twenty20 specialists and a bowling attack that has the variety to unsettle any team, Australia seem to be finally finding their foothold in a format that they didn't take too seriously till a few years ago.

The intimidating trio of David Warner, Shane Watson and David Hussey is capable of ripping apart any attack in the world and Bangladesh can hardly claim to have the bowling to keep them in check.

Bangladesh go into Wednesday's match after losing their tournament opener against Pakistan but they can take heart from the fact that their top batsmen Mohammad Ashraful and Shakib Al Hasan seemed in good touch in the match.

But their bowling is a major worry as it conceded 172 runs against Pakistan.

Australia, on the other hand, have a quality line-up in both the pace and spin departments. The in-form Doug Bollinger and Ryan Harris have more then made up for Brett Lee's absence from the pace attack.

The spin department has useful part-timers like Clarke himself.

Team news

Australia again likely return same squad means Hauritz misses out again.

Squad from Michael Clarke (C), David Warner, Brad Haddin (WK), Nathan Hauritz, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Dirk Nannes, Tim Paine (WK), Steven Smith, Shaun Tait, Daniel Christian, Shane Watson, Cameron White, Ryan Harris

Bangladesh have the likes of captain Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Abdur Razzak, who can guide the team to an upset win.

Squad from Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Imrul Kayes, Jahurul Islam, Mohammad Ashraful, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza, Naeem Islam, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Syed Rasel, Tamim Iqbal

Pitch and conditions
Before the tournament began the Australians were thinking of using four fast men in Barbados, which they remembered as the quickest surface in the Caribbean. The forecast is for scattered showers and a top of 30^oC.

Stats and trivia

• The teams have played once in Twenty20s, with Australia winning by nine wickets at the 2007 tournament in South Africa. Australia have three men in the Caribbean who took part in that game, while Bangladesh have six.
• Bangladesh haven't won a T20 international since they beat West Indies in September 200.
• Australia have not been defeated since their exit in last year's tournament. Since then they have had a no result, an abandoned match, five wins and a one-over eliminator loss that is officially recorded as a tie. It's their most successful streak in the format.

Match facts
Wednesday May 05, 2010
Start time 13:00 local (17:00 GMT)