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Published 12 Jun, 2008 12:00am

BD hope to repeat giant-killing act against India

DHAKA, June 11: Bangladesh caused one of the biggest shocks in World Cup by beating India in the Caribbean last year. Now the Bangladeshis are hoping to reproduce the upset at home on Thursday.

“We will play our best. We beat them (India) twice before, and we hope to repeat that,” Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful told reporters on Wednesday on the eve of the tri-series limited-overs match.

Bangladesh lost the series-opening match on Sunday by 70 runs to Pakistan, who slumped to a 140-run defeat to India on Tuesday. The two leading teams after Thursday’s match will play in the final on Saturday. Bangladesh have not given up hope.

Their five-wicket win over India in the group stage of the 2007 World Cup virtually ended the 2003 finalists’ run in the competition. Bangladesh’s only other ODI win against India came in a home series in 2004.

India coach Gary Kirsten said there would be no risk of taking Bangladesh lightly.

“We want to continue the winning run. But one-day cricket is like lottery, anyone can win,” Kirsten stated. “So, there is no scope to take Bangladesh lightly.”

Kirsten added that there could be line-up changes from the team that beat Pakistan.

“We have some good young players in the team. We have the luxury of rotating,” Kirsten said.

Teams:

BANGLADESH (from): Mohammad Ashraful (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Alok Kopali, Roqibul Hassan, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Dolar Mahmud and Farhad Reza.

INDIA (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Manpreet Gony, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R.P. Singh, Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha.—AP

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