Given the numerous myriad twists and turns this World Cup has taken, this is one of the few matches with absolutely nothing except pride at stake – no points, no semi-final qualification, nothing. But having said that, pride is one of the very few things the Windies can now salvage from this tournament after four back to back defeats. Bangladesh, on the other hand, would very much like to add one more upset to their list of scalps and sign off on a bright note.

History and recent trends

West Indies, along with England and New Zealand, are the only teams Bangladesh haven’t defeated in an international ODI yet.

In their last five encounters, the Bengal Tigers have managed to make the Windies sweat only in one single game, where they made heavy weather of chasing 149. Predictions from the last five games indicate that Bangladesh are capable of putting up around 150 to 160 against the Windies.

 150 is clearly too less to stop a West Indian side desperate to register their first win in the Super Eight. So going by that, Bangladesh’s only chance is to put the Windies in, use the early assistance and try and shoot them out for around 175.

The Bangla story so far

Bangladesh have shown that they can be dangerous while chasing with a comfortable chase of India’s 191.They have also shown some potential whilst batting first in their game against the Proteas in putting up a target of 254.

Batting first, they average approximately 200 runs per innings and 212 batting 

second.Also, of the 4 matches they have won this world cup, three have come while 

chasing.

These stats gain in relevance once you weigh them with the following information.

The Windies story so far

Going by recent games, the Windies have the potential to put up around 226. That, however, may not be enough against Bangladesh because in each of the upsets they have engineered since their controversial defeat of Pakistan in 1999, Bangladesh has scored between 220 to 250.

So far in this World Cup, the Windies have played minnows twice and have managed successful run chases on both occasions. Meanwhile, another point worthy of note is the fact that the Windies have been bowled out three times and have lost 9 wickets once. So, a mighty Windies batting performance isn’t something you should be betting on.

So, like the Bangladeshis, the safest route for the Windies to avoid embarrassment is to insert the Bangladeshis into bat first, and bowl them out for well under 200.