Dublin rain keeps Tigers indoors

The Bangladesh cricket team spent yesterday indoors doing gym work in Dublin because rain once again played spoilsport in the Irish capital.

Bangladesh were supposed to have a practice session at the Malahide Cricket Club ground, the venue of the ongoing tri-series that also features the hosts and New Zealand. Instead, they had a long gym session at the Westmastown Sports Centre.

The tri-series is part of the build-up to the Champions Trophy starting with the Bangladesh-England match in England on June 1.

It has also assumed special importance for Bangladesh, currently placed seventh on the ODI rankings, as three wins out of four matches will see them leapfrog Sri Lanka into sixth position and sit more comfortably in the race to the 2019 World Cup where the top eight teams as of September 30, 2017 will gain direct qualification.

Bangladesh's washed out opener against Ireland on Friday made that road a little more slippery as they had needed to win twice against Ireland and once against New Zealand to go one point clear of Sri Lanka.

Now they will need to win both their matches against New Zealand as well as their second game against Ireland - in other words all their remaining games - to go past Sri Lanka. If they win both their matches against New Zealand and lose their game against Ireland, the Tigers will go level with Sri Lanka. However, if they win only one of their matches against New Zealand while winning the remaining game against Ireland, Bangladesh will lose a ranking point to be just two ahead of eighth-placed Pakistan on 90 points.

The tri-series is being played in a league-based format, with each team playing the other twice and the one with the most points at the end of the two rounds being declared winners. Ireland and Bangladesh have two points each after the rained out opener, while New Zealand have bagged four points by virtue of their win over Ireland on Sunday.

Bangladesh will take on New Zealand on Wednesday.

Source: thedailystar