India game behind us, says Tamim

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Bangladesh insist the opening defeat won't play on their minds © Associated Press Enlarge

Tamim Iqbal says that Bangladesh have put behind them the defeat against India in the World Cup opener, and are feeling good about their chances of making it to the quarter-finals. After a week of frenzied anticipation, Bangladesh went down to India in a disappointing manner, especially with the ball letting India to score 370 runs.

However, Tamim said, "We are not thinking about the India match at all. We still have five matches left, and we are looking ahead. Today's practice I feel was the best session we had in the last one-and-a-half months. Everybody was enjoying, and we were all very relaxed. We are now totally focused on the Ireland match. As a player I am very satisfied about how it went today."

As a player in the first game, though, Tamim struggled, and was the face of Bangladeshi surrender after the first two wickets fell. It was as if Bangladesh had decided early on in their innings that 370 was too much, and they would not even go for it. Before that happened, though, Imrul Kayes, usually the anchor to Tamims pyrotechnics, started aggressively, scoring 34 off 29. Tamim spoke about both the innings.

"The way Imrul struck the ball against India has been a huge benefit for the team," Tamim said. "I think if Imrul can play like that he can take his game to the next level. As for my innings I was not timing the ball well. Somehow the ball was not coming on to the bat that well. So I thought not to throw the wicket and hang in there. One thing I believe is that even if I play 20-30 balls more, I am capable of recovering my strike-rate later.

"Three-hundred-and-seventy-one was a huge target to chase. I thought if we got them somewhere around the 300 to 310 mark, we could have made a match out of it, considering their bowling attack and our bowling strength."

In one way perhaps, Bangladesh take confidence from having reached close to 300, for not every team will set them 371 to chase, and their bowlers are also expected to improve and be more effective against non-subcontinent sides. One of those teams will be Ireland, who have beaten them in the World Cups of both limited-overs formats.

"Against Ireland we have plans for each and every player in their side," Tamim said. "We have played quite a few matches against them, and its the same set of players they have got. We know their strengths and weaknesses. If we can execute our plans we will definitely win." Three of those quite a few matches against Ireland have come at home for Bangladesh, and they have won all three, which will give them heart.

Tamim, though, said there was no room for complacency. "In the World Cup there are no easy matches," he said. "You cannot relax. The moment you take something lightly you stand a chance of losing. We will approach all the matches the same way, similar to the way we approached the India match."

Bangladesh know that progress to the next round will only be possible if they beat both Ireland and Netherlands, apart from beating one of Test-playing teams in their group. A loss against Ireland can knock Bangladesh out. "If you take pressure, there are a lot of pressures," Tamim said, "[But] the boys are mentally very tough, and they are ready. We know we have to play our best if we want to beat any team we play against, whether it's South Africa or whether it's Ireland."