Time to overcome Sri Lankan barriers

Today is the day for Bangladesh to overcome Sri Lankan barriers on the cricket field. While Mashrafe Bin Mortaza will lead Bangladesh out at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo to play the final ODI against the home side and record a rare away series win, Mominul Haque will lead Bangladesh U-23 in Chittagong in hopes of taking a big step towards fulfilling his dream of winning the Emerging Teams Asia Cup by beating his Sri Lankan counterparts.

In the first semifinal, Bangladesh Under-23 will play against a strong Sri Lanka Under-23 side at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium; a venue the team management believe will favour the hosts. The second semifinal between Pakistan and Afghanistan will also take place today, at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong.

"Yes, both the matches are important for us because a win in Sri Lanka will give us a rare series victory away from home and a success in Chittagong will take us to the final of the tournament," national selector and Under-23 team manager Habibul Bashar said with a smile while talking to reporters yesterday.

Bashar said that he was looking to the young players for today's match.

"Our senior players have made huge contributions so far in the group matches, but honestly speaking the young players are yet to fulfil my expectation as it's a tournament for emerging cricketers," said Bashar.

"We played good cricket so far and I am confident that this team has got the ability to overcome the Sri Lankan challenge in the semifinal. I am looking to young players like Saif Hasan, Afif Hossain and Nazmul Hossain Shanto and I believe they will step up tomorrow," he continued.

The former national captain added that he expected better performances from his team as his side's players were familiar with the venue.

"Batting was a bit difficult in Cox's Bazar but I saw the wicket here [at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium] which gave me the impression that it will be a good batting track. Our players played lot of matches here so it will be an added advantage for them," opined Bashar.

On way to reaching the semifinal, Bangladesh comprehensively beat Hong Kong and Nepal and tied their last group match against a formidable Pakistan, while Sri Lanka bounced back from the defeat in their first match against India and beat Afghanistan and Malaysia comprehensively to seal top spot in their group.