TEAM TIGER LOOKING FOR MAIDEN TRI-SIRES TITLE WITH TEAM UNCHANGED IN FINAL

This will be only their second appearance in a tri-series final in their playing history and first since 2009 , when they lost to Sri Lanka by two wickets in a tournament involving the same teams.

Bangladesh will be desperately looking for their maiden tri-nation tournament triumph when they face Sri Lanka in the final at Mirpur today.

The Tigers played overall 11 tri-series but won none apart from the one in West Indies where there was no final but one match against each side.

Bangladesh came out on top in a tri-series involving Canada and Bermuda in the Caribbean in 2007 but there was no final on that occasion.

Bangladesh started the ongoing series as favorites and performed in their first three matches fittingly before a crushing 10-wicket loss over Sri Lanka in the last match .  But the tiger skipper Mashrafee oozed confidence that they can still win the title. 

‘Sri Lanka may have adjusted with the condition over the time as they played four matches here. But it’s not that they can adjust here better than us,’ said Mashrafee.

‘Most of their players played in the BPL [Bangladesh Premier League] and have knowledge over the wicket. But we have better knowledge about the wicket than them,’ he said.

‘I think if we can win the match, the impact will be good for us. The junior players will know about the taste of winning tournaments like that and it may increase their hunger,’ he said.

‘Sometimes winning such tournaments give huge boost to the juniors. And this is also a great opportunity for us, the senior players. I think winning such tournament is very important for any team,’ he added.

‘We will take the field with the same mindset which we had in the first match,’ Mashrafee told reporters in the pre-final press-conference in Mirpur.

‘We really don’t want such kind of defeat. It’s really hard to play when a defeat like this continue to hurt you. But we have given a message all to remain positive,’ said Mashrafee.

Sri Lankan skipper D. Chandimal said that they needed to play competitive game of cricket against the hosts to give their fans something to cheer up after some disappointing performance in the preceding years.

‘Actually, it was a hard time for the team and the Sri Lankan fans over the past two years, especially in the one-day format,’ he added.

The final will start at 12:00pm and will be televised live in GTV and Star Sports Select-2.