Crucial second ODI today
Sports Reporter
Tigers' pace spearhead Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is expected to play in the all-important second one-day international against visiting India at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today.Bangladesh Television and NEO Sports will telecast the match live from 9.30am BST. The lanky fast bowler took part in a late-afternoon training session along with the rest of his teammates yesterday and felt better than the day before and it looks likely that he is fit to get into the thick of things after missing out the first one-dayer which Bangladesh lost by five wickets. The Tigers will take inspiration from their previous one-day series against India when they won the second match by 15 runs at the Bangabandhu National Stadium after having gone down 1-0. A full-house is on the cards again at the Mirpur venue after the Tigers' superb batting display on Thursday made the Indians run ragged. They had the match in their grasp having reduced the visitors to 144-5 but let the game slip away as Mahendra Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik salvaged India and saw them reach the stiff target with an over to spare. The Indians however decided to refrain themselves from training yesterday as they only did some swimming in their hotel pool. Barring any injuries as both Dhoni and fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth suffered severe bouts of cramp during Thursday's match, no changes are expected in their line-up. But for the hosts, paceman Shahadat Hossain is expected to make way for Mashrafe and if left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak does not recover from fever, all-rounder Forhad Reza might take his place. The conditions are not expected to change, except that there is a chance of a washout. Thunderstorms are expected and the forecasts predict a 90 per cent chance of rain. Teams will play today on a different pitch, but it is not expected to be too different in character from the previous one.
|