Two years ago, Bangladesh shocked the world by beating Australia in an ODI. Today, they would be hoping for a similar performance but Australia on current form is the runaway favourite! There are conflicting signals coming from both camps with Ponting dismissing any lack of focus or intensity while Bangla captain Habibul Bashar says that the Bangladeshi gameplan is not dependent on Australia! Strange as that sounds, it may be best for Bangladesh to play their own game!

The Bangladesh team has shown some good batting prowess in the tournament so far and they need to be clear about their plan. Bat first or second, they cannot afford to lose early wickets. At the same time, they also cannot afford to let the Australian bowlers get on top and contain the scoring rate for the pressure created by this would only lead to wickets and eventual annihilation!

Australia at the moment are looking and playing the part of being world champions and Bangladesh is perhaps too small to stand up to them. Heck, even South Africa couldn’t manage that! So long as Australia doesn’t play suicidal, they should win on a canter. But then again, Bangladesh has beaten India and is in the Super Eight at their cost. This could also be a good opportunity for Australia to give some of the other members in the squad a chance. Mike Hussey could use the opportunity to come higher up the order and get a chance to face some more bowling. Andrew Symonds could also use the opportunity to spend some more time in the middle with the bat.

Can Bangladesh even stem the flow of records? In the last six matches, Australia has scored in excess of 300 every time they have batted. If they bat first again, 350-400 is possible. Chasing that down would be nigh impossible for Bangladesh. Their bowling does have some teeth, but not enough to cut through the strong Aussie batting. Masrafe Mortaza would be their best bet for a good start and they do have a couple of handy spinners to make good of a start.

What is Bangladesh’s best result? A win of course, but if they lose (which they most likely will), a margin of under 50 would do them great deal of good. Even South Africa could not bring down the margin of loss to under 50!