Siddons wary of Irish threat

The tables have been turned. Bangladesh, so often the underdogs in international matches, are now favourites. Being a Full-Member country with automatic qualification for the World Twenty20, they are expected to get past Associates Ireland and qualify for the Super Eights. Bangladesh had less to lose when they played India, but their campaign will be on the line at Trent Bridge on Monday.

Bangladesh's coach Jamie Siddions believes that Bangladesh are not losing to the higher-ranked sides because of a difference in skill level anymore. The key, according to him, is errors in decision making and one or two moments of poor judgement which costs them the game. He considered the defeat to India a "missed opportunity" because he felt 180 was chaseable until Shakib Al Hasan and Junaid Siddique fell while trying to clear the boundary when the situation did not demand sixes. Similar errors, Siddons said, would be dangerous against Ireland.

"We need to probably beat Ireland pretty well [to qualify for the Super Eights]. We have the talent and we're playing well enough," Siddons said. "If we make silly mental mistakes we can still be outplayed by Ireland."

Bangladesh have been outplayed by Ireland before - during the Super Eights of the 2007 World Cup - a defeat Ashraful said was due to their anxiety to win. "We brought pressure on ourselves with the fear of losing to a team below us [in 2007]," Ashraful said. "But that's not the case here. The players are very confident and I have not seen the fear-factor on this trip. They [Ireland] have good players, people with county cricket experience but we are up for anything."

Ireland do have an edge over Bangladesh when it comes to knowledge of the conditions - the cold and wet weather is more Dublin than Dhaka - and if the rain persists it could come down to which team handles the pressure of Duckworth-Lewis and a shortened match better. "I am not taking the Irish lightly," Ashraful said. "They know the conditions well and have nothing to lose."

It rained heavily on the eve of the match, forcing Bangladesh to practice indoors at Loughborough rather than at the Lady Bay facility in Nottingham. A wash out tomorrow would be disastrous from Bangladesh's point of view, for they would then be dependent on India beating Ireland by a large margin for qualification to the next round.