Bangladesh play purely for pride at Darwin

Bangladesh's motivation and objectives in the last of their three one-day internationals against Australia at Darwin tomorrow have been clearly spelled out for them by their coach. Dav Whatmore has said that he was appalled by his side's play in the second match at Cairns, on a pitch that should have suited the Bangladeshis.

Whatmore said that he wasn't concerned so much about losing but about the way the loss came about, as well as the batsmen's decisions that contributed to their downfall. He admitted he could only appeal to the players' pride in the hope for improvement.

Australia, against most other teams, could have been accused of being patronising by making so many changes to its normal strategies after only one match of the series. But so distinct is the difference between the two sides that they had to do so in order to give everyone a chance to contribute, especially with the bat.

Even with those changes, which allowed Andrew Symonds and Michael Bevan to open the innings, and Damien Martyn to go up the order to No. 3, Australia were untroubled enough to win by nine wickets. In the second game, Bangladesh also didn't have to face Australia's strike bowler Jason Gillespie, who was rested for the match.

Whatmore made the point that if Bangladesh's players kept going the way they were, they could hardly have cause for complaint if they were eventually dropped. But Whatmore has said he will take another couple of months to make his judgements.

The third one-day match will have some significance for Martyn, who was born in Darwin before moving away as a child. Martyn wasn't considered for the first Test played in the city, and he said that he was looking forward to the occasion of Darwin's first one-dayer.