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Bangladesh managed to reignite their confidence after winning their opening T20 World Cup fixture against Sri Lanka in New York on Saturday. Having come under immense scrutiny in their build-up to the major event, Najmul Hossain Shanto's side seemed to have turned a corner and now eye a place into the Super 8s of the tournament following the thrilling win against the Lankans. With an encounter against South Africa up next, The Daily Star's podcast Pitch Perfect brings you a discussion about Bangladesh's chances to go through to the next stage.

Highlights

*Bangladesh possess a very bleak record against South Africa in T20Is as the Tigers are yet to win a game against the Proteas. The Tigers lost all eight of their encounters.

*Bangladesh have faced South Africa three times in T20 World Cups, suffering convincing defeats each time.

*Bangladesh's 104-run defeat against South Africa in Sydney in the 2022 T20 World Cup is their biggest margin of defeat in the tournament.

*Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkar faces the challenge of not achieving the record of registering the most ducks in T20Is. With 13 ducks in 83 innings, Soumya is now tied at the top of the unwanted list with Ireland's Paul Stirling, who also managed the same number of ducks in 143 innings.

The 2022 Asia Cup will be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while still being officially hosted by Sri Lanka, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) said in a statement on Wednesday. The ACC said that the tournament has been moved to the UAE "considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka". It will be played between August 27 and September 11.

"Considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the ACC after extensive deliberation has unanimously concluded that it would be appropriate to relocate the tournament from Sri Lanka to the UAE," the ACC said in a statement.

Sri Lanka has been reeling under economic and political turmoil. However, they had hosted Australia in a bilateral series and are currently hosting Pakistan. The ACC said that it had made every effort to host the tournament in the country.

"Every effort was made to host the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and the decision to shift the venue to the UAE was taken after much deliberation. The UAE will be the new venue while Sri Lanka will continue to retain hosting rights," ACC president Jay Shah was quoted as saying. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly had earlier said that the tournament had been moved out of Sri Lanka to the UAE.

This will make it the second consecutive time that the tournament will be played in the UAE. The six-team Asia Cup will be played as a T20 tournament this year. India are the defending champions, having won the tournament in 2018 while it was still played in the ODI format.

The Asia Cup will be played in T20 format this time and serve as preparation for the World Cup in October. It will start with a qualifying round of matches between UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong. The winner will go on to the main tournament and play Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh evaded a sixth successive under-200 total in Tests as they ended the fourth day of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram on Tuesday at 268 for seven. It was the Tigers' first 200-plus total in four attempts in the ongoing two-match series against the Lankans as they got bundled out for 188 and 182 in the first Test in Sylhet and were skittled out for 178 in the first innings of the match in progress. The abysmal batting has continued for the Tigers who can't seem to get out of their rut. The last time they scored over 200 was in 2023 November in the first of the two-match Test series against New Zealand in Sylhet. The hosts are on the brink of another big-margin loss as they would need nothing short of a miracle to escape defeat against the Lankans who set a daunting 511-run target. Photos: Firoz Ahmed 

Bangladesh's two-wicket win over Sri Lanka ended a lengthy wait for the Tigers in the ICC T20 World Cups as for the first time since the inaugural edition back in 2007 they have defeated a higher ranked side in the competition.

On September 13, 2007, Bangladesh defeated the West Indies by six wickets in Johannesburg, which was also their very first match in the competition's history.

Since then, they had played 37 more matches up until the match against Sri Lanka, where they won eight games, but all of them were against lower ranked sides, mostly associate teams.

On Saturday, 16 years, eight months and 27 days later after that win over the Caribbeans, Bangladesh have finally registered a win over a higher-ranked team, that too a former champions, in the mega event.

Although Sri Lanka are not far above the Tigers in the rankings, with Bangladesh in ninth position and the Lankans right above them at eighth, the win nonetheless was monumental as it was also the Tiger's first win over the Asian rivals in T20 World Cups.

With a win in their campaign opener of the ninth edition, the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side has boosted their chances of finishing as one of the top two teams in Group D and move onto the Super 8s.

The Tigers will next face the table-toppers South Africa in New York on June 10.