File Photo

DHAKA, Feb 26, 2025 (BSS)-Bangladesh will take on hosts Pakistan in their
last match of the Champions Trophy for a consolation victory at Rawalpindi
Cricket Stadium tomorrow (Thursday). The match starts at 3 PM.

The match turned out to be 'dead rubber' after both of the teams made an exit
from the semifinal race following defeats in the first two matches.

Bangladesh tasted a six-wicket and five-wicket defeat to India and New
Zealand respectively that ruined their way to move to the semifinal. Hosts
Pakistan also lost their first two matches against those two opponents. They
conceded a 60-run defeat to the New Zealand before suffering a six-wicket
defeat to archrivals India.

Even though the result will not bring any significance, Bangladesh captain
Najmul Hossain Shanto said they will give their best effort to win the game.

"We try to win the matches and we try to give our 100 percent to win the
matches," he said, adding that they need to execute their plans properly to
end on a high.

"It's another game and (we're) playing for the country, it's always a matter
of pride for us," he argued.

Shanto hoped that the cricketers will come all guns blazing in the match, "I
hope the boys will do something special for the crowd and for us as well. I
hope we will have a good match."

Pakistan head coach Aaqib Javed echoed the same.

He said Pakistan's hurting players will be motivated by pride in their dead
rubber against Bangladesh.

It was indeed a disappointing conclusion to Pakistan's first hosting of a
major international cricket competition in three decades.

"There are no excuses, there shouldn't be any in life, but I can assure you
that the players are more hurt than the fans and want to leave a mark in the
last game," Aaqib said.

"The players are not satisfied, no one is satisfied after losing, but
everyone tries hard to win and by doing so we have recently won a series in
Australia and South Africa."

"Every game is played for pride so we want to leave a mark (against
Bangladesh) on Thursday," said Aaqib.

The two teams so far met 39 times in ODI cricket with Bangladesh winning just
5 and losing 34.

However, Bangladesh didn't play ODI against Pakistan more often. In the last
five years they met only four times with Pakistan winning three of them. If
the last five matches stat is taken into consideration, the result still in
Pakistan's favour as they won three and lost two against Bangladesh.

Bangladesh: Nazmul Hossain Shanto (c), Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan Tamim,
Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Jaker Ali Anik, Mehidy
Hasan Miraz, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Parvez Hossain
Emon, Nasum Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Nahid Rana.
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (c), Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Saud
Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Usman
Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah
Afridi.