Bangladesh eye last eight but mission is accomplished

Bangladesh will go into their final Group B match against South Africa on Saturday with a World Cup quarter-final place at stake but a feeling that they have already accomplished their mission.

The World Cup co-hosts before the tournament had targeted beating Ireland, Netherlands and one of the top-ranked sides and they have done just that thanks to a shock defeat of England with two wickets to spare.

What Shakib Al Hasan and his men had not bargained on was that England would also slip against Ireland which means that another upset for Bangladesh against South Africa here would take them through to the final eight.

Defeat for Ireland against the Proteas on Tuesday and a West Indian victory over England on Thursday in Chennai would put the Bangladeshis through, regardless of Saturday's result.

Shakib, however, was taking nothing for granted after Bangladesh had comfortably seen off the Dutch on Monday with six wickets and 52 balls to spare.

"I am not too sure how relaxing the South Africa game will be for us but at least I am now confident that if we can play to our potential we will be able to beat any side," he said.

Even if England beat the men from the Caribbean and Bangladesh lose, there is a possibility that the sub-continental team would go through on run-rate calculations but Shakib said he was not even thinking about that possibility.

"We haven't put up big totals on the board in this tournament, so it is not depending on the run-rate. I don't think we can cover it now," said Shakib.

"If West Indies beat England, that's fine. Otherwise, we have to win against South Africa. It is as simple as that," he said.

"Winning the two matches (v England on Friday and Netherlands on Monday) in a span of three days will have helped to boost our confidence level.

"We won one match through hard labour (England game) while one match was a pretty easy one, and it taught us a lot of lessons," he said.

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