Out of the race for the semifinal spots, hosts Pakistan and Bangladesh meet in their last league match in Group A of the Champions Trophy at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday, hoping to salvage some pride.
Pakistan started the event with a defeat to New Zealand in the tournament opener and then went down to arch-rivals India in their second match in Dubai. Bangladesh too started with a defeat to India and then suffered another big defeat to New Zealand, crashing out of contention.
Both teams will be hoping to end the tournament on a winning note to assuage the feelings of their fans.
Pakistan coach Aaqib Javed said the players are hurt by their disappointing performance but said they will try their best against Bangladesh on Thursday.
There are no excuses and there shouldn’t be any. Like if you will see this team, before the match we all are hopeful and back the team also, but when the team plays and we don’t get favourable results, then the player who did not perform well will be the most disappointed.
Javed added that his boys were hurt and they are also sorry about it.
The message to the nation is that you can try and we can try to improve our team. There is no other solution. Tomorrow is another match. We will try to help them. Because in India and Pakistan, there are many things involved in the defeat and victory. You get emotionally hurt. The players are much more disappointed than any of you here. But we will try to improve the things that are lacking. Because in such matches – we definitely miss our impact players.
Bangladesh coach Mohammad Salahuddin said their main concern for the match is how to bat well at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in a match in which rain is predicted to be a spoilsport.
We did not play well in our last matches. What we did before, that's not a concern to me. We have to play well tomorrow; that's the most important thing to us. We did not bat well either. That is the concerning thing about that. In the first match actually, we did not bat well. The top order did not bat well. And yesterday also our middle order did not bat well. We need to fix it as quickly as possible. The wicket is good. I feel that batsmen can do better tomorrow. That will be our main concern, that is how we can bat better here. And I think our bowlers bowled really well last two matches. So hopefully, we'll do better tomorrow..
With both teams grappling with their own issues, the team that manages to find the right answers will win and salvage some pride in the Champions Trophy.
