After more than five weeks of high-octane cricketing action, the 2019 World Cup has boiled down to three matches and four teams. Two of those -- India and New Zealand -- will face off in the first semifinal at Old Trafford today with each side knowing that they need just two good performances to take home cricket’s most coveted trophy.

There is a chance of light rain in Manchester today, but a complete washout is a slim possibility as unlike the group stage, there are reserve days for the semifinals and finals. If rain does stop play today, the teams will continue the match tomorrow from the score they end on today.

While New Zealand have struggled into the knockouts, India have cantered into the last four as the top-placed side. However, while India are ahead, they are not clear favourites as there is precious little to separate the four semifinalists after a group stage that none have escaped unscathed. Neither side are strangers to the pressure cooker atmosphere of World Cup knockouts, although India have had a better experience in semifinals overall, winning three out of six. New Zealand, on the other hand, lost seven semifinals before winning their first one in 2015 against South Africa and then finishing runners-up to Australia.

India skipper Virat Kohli was well aware of the pressure of World Cup knockout games being different from the league matches, likening it to the ‘toughest situations’ in Test cricket.

“League stages, when you know that you need a victory to qualify, the team is a bit more relaxed and you know you can go out and try a few things,” said Kohli in the pre-match press conference yesterday. “But I think in knockout games you need to be very precise, at the same time being intense. This is more similar to the toughest situations you get in Test cricket where you have to be absolutely precise but your intent cannot go down, so decision-making will be crucial.”

While India are known for their batting prowess, the match well may become a fight between two of the best bowling lineups in the World Cup. India’s seamers -- Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya -- have been the most successful fast men in the World Cup, scalping 51 wickets. India will also feel that they have the edge on non-subcontinental teams with two leg-spinners in the right-handed Yuzvendra Chahal and the left-handed Kuldeep Yadav. With off-spin-bowling all-rounder Kedhar Jadhav also in the mix, they will certainly have a lot of options when forming the ideal bowling combination to run through the Kiwis.

New Zealand, meanwhile, have been the only team among the top four to have conceded runs at less than five an over. Their seam attack is a varied one, with Trent Boult and Matt Henry providing movement up front, Lockie Ferguson providing high pace and Colin de Grandhomme’s cutters and change-ups keeping batsmen guessing in the middle overs. Completing the picture is left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who has kept a tight lid on scoring in the middle overs.

While their bowling is in rude health, New Zealand should be worried about their top order. Opener Martin Guptill has just scored 166 runs in eight matches, and New Zealand have lost 13 wickets in the batting Powerplay in the group stage. They have been overly reliant on skipper Kane Williamson, whose 481 runs have constituted an astonishing 28.73 per cent of New Zealand’s runs. The partnerships between Williamson and Ross Taylor -- who is the team’s second-highest scorer with 261 -- have proven integral in New Zealand’s wins.

“No, I don’t really look at it like that. I look at my role as a role and that’s one of 11 guys that do try and play their role to the best of their ability,” Williamson said when asked if his and Taylor’s were the key wickets for opposition. “And there’s so many guys that have had significant contributions over the last few years that have gone a long way for us to win cricket matches and we all have that same opportunity going into tomorrow.”

With a maximum of two games left to play, it will all come down to which side holds their nerves better on the day. If New Zealand’s top order can come to the party, it may well be a great contest to kick off the knockouts.

At the business end of a tournament, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was once more faced with an all-too-familiar hurdle. In the last two ICC 50-over tournaments, it was India that stopped Bangladesh's march -- in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal and the 2017 Champions Trophy semifinal. After an impressive run in the ongoing World Cup, Mashrafe and Co are left having to win against India today to stay alive in the race to the semifinals.

Mashrafe was under no illusions about the size of the task at hand when speaking at the pre-match press conference in Birmingham yesterday.

"Look, every time we play, we want to win, but India were the better side in the last few World Cups," Mashrafe said when asked about his team's chances. "We go out onto the field to play at our best, and let's see. You never know. If you have a very good day, play every area, and if we are 100 percent correct, then you never know. It's a sport that on your day you can beat anybody."

All sportsmen present a veneer of confidence ahead of a contest, but Mashrafe seemed to struggle to maintain his.

"I'm not surprised," Mashrafe answered when asked whether he expected the team to last this long in the World Cup. "I think there's not too much left. We have to play at our best. If we can manage to win, that will be great, but to be honest, both sides [India and Pakistan, their next opponents] are very strong. It's not going to be easy, but we have to play hard and have to be 100 percent in every area. Good thing that we're still in the tournament, maybe, maybe not [after tomorrow], but let's see. We have to play a lot better than what we have played."

And that is the nature of the challenge facing Bangladesh. Most observers have been impressed by Bangladesh's progress through the tournament -- beating West Indies, South Africa and Afghanistan and almost beating New Zealand. But with how the teams stack up -- India have the most varied bowling attack and the best players of spin bowling, Bangladesh's strength -- Mashrafe knew that his team would have to play even better to stand a chance against the 2011 and 1983 champions.

"Whenever we have beaten big teams, I don't think we have ever won by playing well in one department," Mashrafe said when asked if there was one area in which he would put Bangladesh ahead of India. "It has always been batting, bowling and fielding. If we can do well in all sectors, then of course we can win."

There may be one chink in India's armour and that is their top-heavy batting department. Opener Rohit Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli, at number three, have scored a lion's share of their runs and getting them early could expose a softer middle order. But Bangladesh seem ill-prepared to exploit that as well, as they have managed to take a wicket in the first 10 overs just twice in six matches. Pacers Mustafizur Rahman and Mohammad Saifuddin have taken 10 wickets each, but only one of those wickets, that of Chris Gayle's wicket by Saifuddin, was taken by a pacer. Mashrafe meanwhile has just one wicket from six matches.

"It has not been ideal, for sure," Mashrafe said. "You need early wickets against India, otherwise they can get a very big score. But just because it has not happened before does not mean it won't happen tomorrow [Tuesday]."

That seems to be Bangladesh's way forward -- they have to find something that they have not yet found in the tournament.

Shakib Al Hasan said before the match yesterday that one of the disappointments of Bangladesh's World Cup campaign so far has been their fielding efforts. He may have been hoping that the match to follow -- the Tigers' last World Cup game against Pakistan at Lord's -- would be an exception, but instead it crystallised his point. That Bangladesh will go home before the World Cup semifinals owes much to their fielding lapses and their inability to win the crunch moments on the field.

On a slowish wicket, a 157-run second-wicket partnership between Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam was the backbone of Pakistan's above-par score of 315 for nine. Like in matches against New Zealand, Australia and India, Bangladesh had chances to change the momentum, only to fail at each pivotal moment.

With the partnership still shy of a hundred, Pakistan were under a bit of pressure with just 24 runs coming in the seven overs between overs 18 and 25. Also, all the pressure was on Pakistan despite the burgeoning partnership because they were still in with a theoretical -- if outlandishly wishful -- chance of making the semifinals. However, when it came to cashing in on the building pressure, Mosaddek Hossain dropped Babar, then on 57, at point off Mustafizur Rahman in the 26th over. There was another chance in the next over, but Mushfiqur Rahim failed to get his gloves to an edge off the same batsman, with the unfortunate bowler this time being Mosaddek.

Against Australia, David Warner was dropped at point when he was just on 10, and went on to score 166. India's Rohit Sharma was dropped in the deep when on nine and punished Bangladesh for 95 more runs, taking the game away from the Tigers.

The team and their fans often ruefully recall their second World Cup match against New Zealand, saying that with just a bit of luck they could have won the match they lost by three wickets. But it was Mushfiqur Rahim's missed run-out chance of Kane Williamson that proved to be the turning point in that match.

Players often like to point out that missed catches are part of the game, but when it becomes a feature rather than a bug like it has for Bangladesh, it will be a major factor in the team's performance. Bangladesh's ground fielding was also woeful yesterday, as there were numerous errors and fielders diving over balls to allow boundaries became a common sight. It all contributed to Pakistan scoring much more than they should have, and more than Bangladesh would be able to. Mehedi Hasan Miraz's excellent figures of one for 30 from 10 overs showed just how difficult it was to bat on a wicket if the bowlers bowled well and the fielders backed them up.

Everyone had been hailing Bangladesh's performance in the World Cup, but although yesterday was a dead rubber, winning it would have placed them fifth in the points table. With their fielding record in this World Cup and yesterday's performance in particular, that would probably have been a position too high.

Bangladesh have worse results against other teams. They won only one of 21 matches against Australia and against Pakistan, they have won just five of 36. However, India remain the White Whale for the Tigers, not just because of a 5-29 win-loss ratio, but because in recent times India have been the one fish -- or mammal -- that got away despite Bangladesh having them in their grasp.

The most recent such example was the teams' last encounter, in the Asia Cup final in Dubai, last September. Centurion Liton Das and surprise opener Mehedi Hasan Miraz had the Indians on the ropes with a 120-run opening stand, but then Bangladesh imploded to 222 all out. They still showed fight to take the match to the last over, but were heartbroken again, again at the hands of India in a crunch game.

Before that, Bangladesh lost the Nidahas Trophy T20 final against India in Colombo when Dinesh Karthik hit Soumya Sarkar over cover for six off the last ball of the match. The 2016 World Twenty20 is perhaps the harshest as Bangladesh were dumped out of the tournament after needing just two runs to win from three balls, only for the three wickets to fall without a score being added. They had also lost the 2017 Champions Trophy semifinal and the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal against India, and the 2016 T20 Asia Cup final to India. In the ongoing World Cup too, with Bangladesh in a position where they have to win their next two matches to stand a chance of qualifying for the semifinals, the Tigers are faced with their white whale.

Having run a fine, praiseworthy World Cup campaign so far, if Bangladesh are to stand a chance of upstaging the form team of the tournament and gaining arguably the team's most prized scalp, there are a few areas they could look to shore up on.

Early wickets, calling Soumya and Fizz

This works both ways. Only once in their six matches in the ongoing World Cup -- in the match against New Zealand on June 5 -- have Bangladesh taken more than one wicket in the first 10 overs. Against India that could well be costly, especially if the likes of Rohit Sharma are allowed to settle in. Bangladesh have some inspiration to draw on from the World Cup warm-up game against India on May 28. Mustafizur Rahman opened the bowling, got the wicket of the now-injured Shikhar Dhawan and consistently troubled Kohli and Sharma with his pace and swing. However, his consistency has been a concern in the tournament proper and, if he does open the bowling, any loose balls will be punished by Sharma and KL Rahul -- who scored a century in the warm-up.

While most of the onus will be on Bangladesh's misfiring bowling attack, the challenge of playing India now is that they also have arguably the best bowling attack. Bangladesh's batting is their strong suit, but with their style of play -- gradually building towards a sizeable total rather than rocketing to it -- it is imperative that openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar give them a big start. The duo have been performing well -- early wickets have not been a feature of Bangladesh's batting since the tri-series in Ireland -- but with India's varied bowling attack, they have to absorb the pressure and put some of it back before passing the baton onto the in-form middle order headed by Shakib Al Hasan in red-hot form. While Tamim has not set the world alight, he still has 205 runs from six matches. It is Soumya, with 111 runs from six games, who has to step up next Monday.

L-R: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mustafizur Rahman

Burst through fear of failure

After the Asia Cup final loss in 2018, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza had said in an interview that there had to be improvements in mental strength. He talked about how, even when the openers were building a strong stand, the fear of something bad happening was at the back of his mind. It can justifiably be said that if the mentally strong captain experienced this fear, then the rest of the team -- having gone through heartbreaks against India -- felt it too. He speculated that perhaps that fear was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The talk, on the record and off, has been to play the next two matches as one-offs and play the opponents as they come. If they can match up in skills with India on the day, it may well come down to staving off that fear when it comes to winning crunch moments.

It was a day that witnessed an exhibition of true Test batsmanship from the ever-dependable Mushfiqur Rahim, who has set a high standard for Bangladesh when it comes to embodying the principles of extreme discipline and devotion to craft that has sadly been missing in many of his teammates.

From the dismal record of not reaching 200 in their last eight Test innings, which included their lowest ever Test total of 43 runs against the West Indies, Bangladesh have managed to emerge from the ashes.

Appropriately, playing the part of the phoenix was the most deserving Mushfiqur, who became the first Bangladeshi and the first wicketkeeper-batsman in Test cricket to record a second double hundred, helping the home side continue their dominance against Zimbabwe on the second day of the second and final Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

Riding on Mushfiqur's epic unbeaten 219, which featured 18 fours and a six, Bangladesh declared their first innings on 522 for seven and Zimbabwe finished the day on 25 for one, with the home side looking to take a vise-grip of the match on the third day.

Records fell left and right as the right-hander also made the highest score by a Bangladesh batsman, eclipsing Shakib Al Hasan's 217 against New Zealand in Wellington last year.

It was the fourth double hundred by a Bangladesh batsman and it was Mushfiqur who registered the maiden double hundred back in 2013 at Galle against Sri Lanka, which Tamim Iqbal crossed in 2015 against Pakistan by scoring 206 runs.

There were a few more records broken by the diminutive batsman in terms of facing the most number of deliveries and the most time spent at the crease by a Bangladesh batsman in the longest format.

The stage was set after the first day as Mushfiqur resumed the second day on 111 with Bangladesh aiming for a big first innings total on 303 for five.

Mushfiqur paired with stand-in skipper Mahmudullah Riyad and it looked as if both batsmen were heading for a big partnership. But Mahmudullah once again paid a heavy price for poking his bat out indecisively with non-existent feet movement off the bowling of Kyle Jarvis after scoring 36 runs.

Mushfiqur, however, remained as solid as he was on the first day while Ariful Haque was guilty of being dismissed in the same manner cheaply. After putting up a record fourth-wicket stand with Mominul on the first day, Mushfiqur then paired with Mehedi Hasan Miraz and added a Bangladesh record 144-run unbeaten stand for the eighth wicket.

 It took another 147 balls to reach his 150 after reaching his hundred in 187 balls. He started to open up more since then and his drive through extra cover off Sikandar Raza, with the off-spinner operating from around the wicket, was a piece of virtuoso batsmanship that will not be forgotten soon by those who witnessed it. But the focus remained rock solid on 199 when he watchfully played out a maiden over from leg-spinner Brandon Mavuta.

The moment arrived in his very next ball in the next over, when he pulled a Raza short ball towards square leg to take a single off his 407th delivery 15 minutes after tea and celebrated the feat in grand style.

Mehedi remained unbeaten on 68, his second half-century, which he scored with the help of five fours and a six.

Pacer Jarvis was the pick of the bowlers, bagging his third five-wicket haul and second against Bangladesh.

In reply left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, the hero of the first Test, removed Zimbabwe skipper Hamilton Masakadza on 14, who had been lucky to get that far as he was dropped at second slip by Ariful Haque to deny debutant pacer Khaled Ahmed a maiden Test wicket.