Cricket One Day International Prediction

Ireland vs Bangladesh - Match Preview

🏏 12 May 2023 - 13:45 GMT +0

Ireland’s efforts to avoid bad weather by relocating their three-game World Cup Super League series against Bangladesh from Dublin to Essex was in vain as unrelenting afternoon rain wiped out Tuesday’s first ODI 16 overs into a delicately balanced run chase. With it, Ireland’s already slim chances of automatic qualification for the 2023 ODI World Cup were vanquished, and their appearance in next month’s global Qualifier in Zimbabwe was confirmed.

It now makes the selection of a neutral venue appear to be foolish ahead of the remaining two matches, and even prior to the first Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie was none too pleased when telling media that he’s “not going to sit here and say that we want to be here”. In front of an estimated crowd of 3,000, which were predominantly Bangladeshi ex-pats from the eastern London region, Ireland’s bowlers made an excellent start to silence the hostile crowd by removing four of Bangladesh’s top five for fewer than 30 runs.

Balbirnie’s dreadful ODI form that has now seen him record six single-digit scores surrounding an unbeaten century in Zimbabwe continued, though Harry Tector looked to be in fine touch with Ireland at 65/3 in the 17th over chasing 247. Nobody will ever know which way the game would have resulted, but almost all bowlers to have had a trundle would have been pleased with their efforts and their returns.

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha told the press leading into this series that the team would not be treating this series as a World Cup preparation, considering that the conditions would not at all be similar to those they would encounter in India. Winning was the only thing on his mind throughout the series, so fans can expect the team that Bangladesh rolled out in the first ODI to be considered one of their strongest possible.

That’s bad news for Mustafizur Rahman, who has left out of the XI yet again and appears to now be a thing of the past as far as the ODI team is concerned. It was a positive for the tourists to limit Ireland to three partnerships of fewer than 30 runs each, whilst they themselves managed four such stands as half of their batting order all got started. Only wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, on his 36th birthday, was able to go on past fifty. That came as little surprise given that not only is Mushfiqur the most experienced member of the team in terms of age and ODIs played (246), but his ODI batting average of 47 in England is one of his finest in any single country.

Another decent crowd is expected for this Friday's fixture prior to Sunday’s sellout at the 6,500-capacity County Ground in Chelmsford, though there is, unfortunately, a significant chance of light but persistent rain throughout the afternoon. A win here would give Ireland the upper hand as they pursue just their second ODI series win from 12 attempts since the beginning of 2020.

⚡ Players to watch: Fast bowler Graham Hume was a positive surprise for Ireland in their away series earlier this year and, having been given another cap despite the return of Josh Little from the IPL, repaid the faith with another two wickets and an economy rate of 3.20rpo. One of them was former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, who has been dismissed three times by Hume in ODIs this year from just three overs bowled (14 runs).

📋 Stat attack: Tuesday’s match was just the third of 81 ODIs to take place in England during the month of May that was abandoned.

• Bangladesh won five of their last seven completed ODIs away from home.
• Josh Little has picked up 2+ wickets in seven of his last nine white-ball internationals.
• Najmul Hossain Shanto cleared 40+ runs in four of his last six ODI innings.
• Andrew Balbirnie now has just 48 runs from his five ODI innings against Bangladesh (average 9.60).
• Andy McBrine has career figures of 1/136 from 24 ODI overs bowled against Bangladesh.