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Difficult but not impossible - Shakib

Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan believes that reaching the World Cup final is difficult but not impossible.

As the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 comes to at the halfway mark, the battle to reach semifinal gets intense.

Hosts England should be credited to make the battle more alluring, even though it cost them dearly.

With the World Cup heading to a boring conclusion as far as the semifinal line up is concerned, England firstly tasted a surprising defeat to Sri Lanka in a low scoring affair. Latter their defeat to archrivals Australia further opened up the tournament, leaving all teams apart from Afghanistan and South Africa to give it a shot to semifinal race.

To the delight of the Bangladeshi fans, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s team is also in the race although in their case many ifs and buts are involved.

But the Tigers performance is noteworthy till date, giving the fans a chance to keep their finger crossed. Bangladesh currently sits at fifth position with seven points from seven games.

Bangladesh needs to win their remaining two matches against India and Pakistan to make it to the semifinal. They can still go through with one win, If England win none of their matches, Sri Lanka win just one of their three matches and Pakistan win not more than two matches.

Bangladesh have won three matches so far against South Africa, West Indies and Afghanistan while as many match to New Zealand, England and Australia. Their match against Sri Lanka washed out, when it was widely regarded that they could beat the Lankans.

‘’It is difficult mathematically [to reach the final] but anything is possible in cricket,’’ said Shakib adding for them now the only way out is winning the remaining two matches respectively against India and Pakistan.

We have to win both our matches[ group phase] and it difficult,’’ he said.

‘’But we have to believe that we can win both the matches because that is in our hand,’’ he said.

‘’We have to keep an eye on others result as well but for us the most important thing is to win the next two matches,’’ he said.

Mashrafe Mortaza's side has been one of the teams to watch out for in the tournament, landing killer blows to South Africa and West Indies during their journey. If they beat Pakistan and India in their last two games, they end with 11 points and would want either of the three scenarios to happen.

Both England and Sri Lanka should lose at least one more match and finish with a maximum of ten points

New Zealand lose to both Australia and England and finish on a lower NRR than Bangladesh AND India lose at least three of their remaining matches and end up with a lower or same NRR as Bangladesh

It is unlikely that Bangladesh will go through with one win and nine points, despite the mathematical possibility, because of their negative NRR and a high probability of other teams getting to ten points.

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