Tamim says top four must fire for Tigers to beat SA

Former Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal said that the top four has to come up with the goods against South Africa if the Tigers are to end their winless streak against the Proteas in T20Is in the Group D match of the ICC T20 World Cup in New York, set to begin later today.

"I think it has to come from the top four," Tamim told ESPNCricinfo yesterday.

The top-order was one of Bangladesh's weakest points heading into the T20 World Cup. Bangladesh went with a top four of Tanzid Tamim, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto in their tournament opener against Sri Lanka.

Out of them, Liton was the only one to get going, making a steadfast 36 off 38 balls in a 125-run chase.

Tamim hopes that Liton would kick on from the innings against Sri Lanka and other top-order batters would also put their hands up.

"Liton has been struggling for a while, didn't have the most fluent Innings last game but still he got some runs so he should be feeling a little confident. He has done well in the past against South Africa. Soumya has done well against South Africa in the past also. So, I think these guys will be key.

"Obviously there's Mahmudullah and Shakib who have a lot of experience. I think it needs to be a combined team effort rather than going individually. I think if Bangladesh can play as a unit and then score 160-165 even 150, given the way the wicket is behaving, you never know," said the opener.

The South African top-order has also been short of runs so far in the tournament, and were in all sorts of trouble against the Netherlands, where they were reduced to 12-4 at one point chasing 104. David Miller eventually bailed out South Africa with an unbeaten 59 off 51 balls.

Tamim feels utilising the new ball and making dents in the Proteas batting line up early on will be key for the Tigers.

"I think the new ball will be key, especially the four overs from Taskin [Ahmed] and Mustafizur [Rahman] will be very, very important. Because, yes, they haven't scored runs but mind you they are very dangerous batsmen. You can't give them any chances because if [Quinton] de Kock gets a slight opportunity he can hurt you pretty bad.

"Taskin has been bowling quite well, Bangladesh in general with the new ball have been bowling quite nicely and they will definitely get some assistant from the wicket. Whatever games we have seen [in New York] we have seen that the bounce is a bit uneven, the ball does a little bit. So Bangladesh's new ball bowling will be very important if they want to win the game on the 10th."

The 35-year-old also wants the Tigers to not shoot for a big total if they bat first and instead get around that 150 region and then test South Africa.

"I think Bangladesh have to come out of the mindset of trying score 180-200 against South Africa. South Africa have some big names, big hitters but if they start thinking that if they want to win this game they need to score 180-200 then it's a problem because of the way the wicket is behaving.

"If Bangladesh end up batting first they should look to score 150-160, give their bowlers a chance and just have a crack at South African batsman because especially in this kind of wicket you never know what is going to happen."