Fans poured in from 2pm

The last time a Twenty20 International took place in Dhaka, the city was decorated with tiles being placed on the footpaths and newer lights being installed in the main roads. The occasion at Mirpur yesterday may not have been as exciting as the World Cup, but it witnessed a similar scenario at Mirpur.

People started lining up as early as 2:00 pm for the evening game and it was a good thing too, for it was the early birds who got the best seats. "The whitewash won't be complete as long as we don't win the T20," chuckled Abdullah Al Nayeem, a university student, while getting his face painted red and green.

While Al Nayeem looked forward to a whitewash, his friend Sourav Ghosh had come to Mirpur for a more personal reason. "I had gotten tickets to all of Bangladesh's T20 games during the World Cup… and that was really sad because they were thrashed in all those matches. Hopefully things will be different today," said Sourav.