Bangladesh and Afghanistan at opposite ends of the spectrum

Bangladesh and Afghanistan appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum heading into the third and final ODI at Chattogram today. A confident Afghanistan are living in the present while Bangladesh appear to be hoping for the future, characteristic of Bangladesh cricket's culture when things do not go their way.

The Tigers' practice session yesterday was cancelled due to early morning showers but the weather was kind to the visitors, who practiced in the afternoon although they have already sealed the series.

The Bangladesh team did not come to the ground and the gist of Nic Pothas's press conference was that Bangladesh were looking to get better from facing the kind of challenge Afghanistan presented. Whether specific work had been done to deal with the three Afghan spinners remained a mystery.

Pothas was asked if reading the Afghan spinners out of hand had been a difficult prospect. "I think it is not a question of whether we struggled. It is a question of how the world struggles to pick them," he said.

Afghanistan are ranked ninth in the ODI rankings but Pothas maintained that everybody has struggled against Afghanistan, who had only won ODI series against the likes of Scotland, Netherlands, Zimbabwe and Ireland before this series.

"Where they are ranked in the world will tell you, everybody in the world struggles to pick them. Question is, what are we going to do about it, and how is it going to make us better?" he felt.

That international cricket has a steep learning curve was already an established fact. Ahead of the World Cup, one where Tigers want to put their best foot forward, Pothas felt that the batters needed more time to learn the trade of facing quality spin.

"County and state cricket is probably the closest to international cricket. Still there is a big jump. When you come up to international cricket, the execution jumps. International bowlers are going to find chinks in your armour. These things take time," he stated, hinting work would have to be done.

While Afghanistan's spin attack has been massive, it has been their pacers' performance which now sees the side hope for a better World Cup. Bowling coach Hamid Hassan declared they were one step ahead of Bangladesh because of their preparations.

Bangladesh have not been able to put the pressure back on Afghanistan in any of the two ODIs.

"We played positive cricket, one step ahead of Bangladesh maybe. And that's why maybe Bangladesh couldn't catch our bowlers or batters early. That was maybe the key point. Beating Bangladesh in Bangladesh is not easy, but we worked really hard behind that, practising in training for five to six hours. And the most important thing, believing in the team, in ourselves. That's the most important thing for anyone. If you believe in yourself, you can beat anyone," he opined.

Execution of their plans also led Afghanistan to think about the World Cup in a big way. "This time we are thinking bigger, hoping for a very good result given the way the team is performing. The world is aware of Afghanistan," Hassan admitted.