Australia wins toss and will field against Bangladesh at Cricket World Cup
Semifinal-bound Australia won the toss and will bowl first against Bangladesh in the Cricket World Cup at Pune, India on Saturday.
Australia wins toss and will field against Bangladesh at Cricket World Cup
Semifinal-bound Australia won the toss and will bowl first against Bangladesh in the Cricket World Cup at Pune, India on Saturday.
It was the first of two matches on the final day of the round-robin portion of the tournament. Fifth-placed Pakistan next play England in Kolkata, with Pakistan needing a big win to advance to the top-four semi-finals considering net run rate.
Australia made two changes. Glenn Maxwell, the hero of the double century win over Afghanistan in Mumbai, was rested, as was pace bowler Mitchell Starc. Fit-again Steve Smith and pacer Shaun Abbott have been included in the playing XI.
Vice-captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto is leading Bangladesh, with left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed. It made two more changes - pacer Mustafizur Rahman and batting all-rounder Mahedi Hasan also came in for bowlers Tanzim Hasan Shakib and Shariful Islam.
India will look to win their ninth straight match to remain the only perfect team in the tournament when they take on the Netherlands in Bengaluru on Sunday. This will be the 45th and final match of the preliminary stage which started on October 5 and 10 teams have played each other once.
Second-placed South Africa finished with 14 points from seven wins from nine matches. Australia can leapfrog the Proteas into second place if they beat Bangladesh by a big margin on Saturday, but regardless, they will play each other in the semi-finals next Thursday in Kolkata.
India will face fourth-placed New Zealand in the first semi-final in Mumbai on Wednesday unless Pakistan can overhaul the Black Caps by beating England by a convincing margin and improve their net run-rate
substantially.
The final will be held next Sunday, November 19, at the 132,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the world's largest cricket venue.
On Saturday, the ICC said that with six matches remaining, more than one million fans attended the tournament. It said the millionth fan came through the turnstiles during the match between Afghanistan and South Africa in Ahmedabad on Friday, a match won by the Proteas by five wickets.
the lineup
Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan, Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto (captain), Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Towhid Hridoy, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman.
Australia: David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins (captain), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
