B’desh aim to revive campaign against Dutch

Kolkata: Seeking a revival of fortunes, Bangladesh and Netherlands will have one last chance to keep their slender semifinals hopes alive when they clash with each other as the World Cup finally arrives at the hallowed Eden Gardens here on Saturday.

As the sports-crazy city awakens from its 10-day Durga Puja revelry, the World Cup finally arrives in Kolkata, 23 days and 27 matches into the global showpiece.

The familiar buzz and the World Cup excitement is, however, missing from the venue that is all decked-up for its leg of five matches which include the marquee India-South Africa clash and the second semifinal. Both teams have one win from four outings.

Call it their misfortune or lack of a proper planning, Bangladesh’s campaign has fallen miserably after they began on a positive note with a comprehensive win over Afghanistan.

Bangladesh had to face three heavyweights in defending champions England, last edition’s runners-up New Zealand and hosts India and the ‘Bangla Tigers’ failed to spring any magic to see their World Cup campaign almost done and dusted. They were next drawn against South Africa, who were not pre-tournament favourites but the way the Proteas have taken the tournament by storm the Shakib Al Hasan-led side did not have any Plan B for a course-correction.

Fresh from posting 399 in their previous game, South Africa batting was on fire yet again at the cost of Bangladesh who endured a 149-run rout.

The team’s atmosphere was shaken so much that skipper Shakib had to fly back home in the middle of a global tournament for a few hours with his childhood mentor Nazmul Abedeen Fahim to sort out some “technical issues”.

Match Starts: 2pm IST