And the Bangladesh captain was confident on the eve of the first one-dayer against the visitors that they have the potential to repeat the feat.

"There is a huge gap in the strength of the two sides but we have already proved that nothing is impossible in a one-day game. We have the ability to do something special on a given day," said Bashar yesterday at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium.

Upbeat, despite a poor show in the second Test at the same venue, Bashar said he was hopeful because of Bangladesh's better one-day record.

"On top of that we've had a pretty good Test series against Australia. So we are going out there in a positive frame of mind and expect to do something good," he added.

"I'll go for inspiration from the first Test. The Cardiff game, however, will remind us that in a one-day match, the team that plays better on the day win. That is also applicable even if Australia are the world's number one team."

The 33-year old Bashar was also very much aware with the fact that the Australians will come down hard after their demoralising defeat in the record-breaking game against South Africa but he was not worried.

"That is how they play. But we are not concentrating on what they are going to do. It is important for us to execute our plans to the best of our ability. We like to keep our plans simple. We are not going to try anything radical. We want to stick to the basics," he explained.

"In the past we have suffered for not getting runs from the top order. But recently, we have seen that the batsmen are scoring frequently and that is a very good sign."

But he was aware that they will need Cardiff-like efforts from Mohammad Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed, both of whom had a disappointing Test series, to repeat history.

"Still some of the batsmen have not managed runs in the Test series but I expect them to come good in the ODIs. Actually, I admit that we have not been consistent enough."

Coach Dav Whatmore said their performance in the Test series would be a boost ahead of the one-day series.

"I think we all agree that there have been some really good positives and we earned a fair bit of credit without winning a Test match. We have played many where we haven't had any credit at all but I think in this series the players at times stood up and were counted for against very good opposition. So, yes, we've taken some confidence from that series," said Whatmore.

"We all think that we're experts on wickets but often most of us are wrong. You can project a little bit but once the game starts, if you are thinking in the right way and see how it's behaving, then you can try and project a score but at the moment it's all too early to say," added the Sri Lankan-born Australian.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting's approach was rather clinical.

"I'm looking forward to the start of this series and I expect the wicket to be good for batting. I've spoken to the team about the need to start this series well and to be physically and mentally prepared for the game," he said.

"We've given a debut to Dan Cullen and with Brad Hogg, Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke in the team, we have plenty of spin options," he added.

TEAMS
BANGLADESH: Habibul Bashar (captain), Shahriar Nafees, Rajin Saleh, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Mashrafee Bin Mortuza, Syed Rasel and Abdur Rzzak.

AUSTRALIA (from): Ricky Ponting (captain), Simon Katich, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, James Hopes, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken and Mitchell Johnson and Dan Cullen.