Bangladesh have a point to prove against West Indies

Bangladesh is facing host West Indies in their final super eights match of the world cup at Kensington Oval in Barbados today. After losing to Ireland on last Sunday at the same venue, Bangladesh is desperately looking for a win to bow out of the world cup on a high.

Bangladesh managed a roller coaster ride in the tournament and enjoyed some glorious moments after defeating India in group stages and South Africa in the super eights. The unpredictability of the Tigers were evident in rest of the matches and loss to Ireland raised question marks about their consistency in the top fights.

Bangladesh have a point to prove against West Indies © Cricinfo

Bangladesh is now fighting to avoid the bottom place in the super 8's table and skipper Habibul Bashar showed his frustration over the situation but vowed to finish the world cup with a better performance.

"We created our chances to reach semi-final by beating South Africa but here we are now fighting to avoid finishing in the last two". "We must give it our best shot to end on a high note, we must realize that we deserve a better place than last" said Bashar.

Host West Indies will try to lift the morale of the Caribbean supporters in their last two world cup matches. West Indies is already out of the semi-final race and the team management including Lara is facing harsh criticisms for the poor show from former West Indian greats.

Skipper Brian Lara who is retiring from one-day cricket at the end of the tournament, urged his team-mates to perform for the fans in their last two matches but he is not taking Bangladesh for granted. Team manager Clive Lloyd shared similar vision with Lara.

"They are a formidable side and have done well in this World Cup and they have beaten quite a few good sides in Tests so they are on their way up," said Lloyd.

"We don't take any team lightly, it's just that we haven't played quite as well as we could, our results have shown that," Lloyd added in an interview with AFP.

.Bangladesh has left out vice captain Shahriar Nafees out of the playing XI and left-arm seamer Syed Rasel, who missed the Ireland match due to last minute injury is retiring to the side.

Bangladesh is yet to win any match against West Indies in their last 12 encounters.

West Indies (from): Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore, Jerome Taylor, Denesh Ramdin, Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Daren Powell, Kieron Pollard.

Bangladesh (from): Habibul Bashar (captain), Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Saqib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shahadat Hossain, Farhad Reza, Syed Rasel, Rajin Saleh, Javed Omar.

Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZ) and Rudi Koertzen (SA).