Bangladesh are now one step away to make the final of the U-19 World Cup. On Thursday they will face West Indies in the second semi-final. If Bangladesh can win the match they will reach the final and it will be the biggest achievement in the cricketing history of Bangladesh. But Bangladesh U-19 Team technical advisor Stuart Law and batsman Nazmul Hasan Shanto said they are thinking about the West Indies match first then they will think about the final.
Talking to the media on Tuesday Law said, "They are playing good cricket which is very proud of us. But it is not about winning the trophy, it is about doing everything right. Every day to make sure we are in the best possible position to win games. If we focus on the end result and worry about only of what we need to do, we have proved that we can go through and progress in the tournament. Nothing changes, we are not talking about winning the cup. We are talking about preparing for the West Indies game on Thursday. We are not worry about the final, we have to worry about Thursday first."
Shanto also talked in the similar tone of Law as he mentioned, "We have the hope to play the final. But we are not thinking about the final. May be some are saying that some are not. We are thinking about the match of February 11. What will happen in final, who will come in the final, we are not thinking about that."
Both of Shanto and Law mentioned about the strong pace bowling of the West Indies. At the same time they also said the team who will do better on the day will win.
Law said, "We know that they (WI) have some good pace bowlers and they have some hard hitting batsmen. We are not worried about how they play, we are worried about how we play. And we know that they are going to be very tough every time they have gone out there in the cricket field they have made improvement. Right now they are playing very good cricket, we will have to play very well to nullify them. We are just preparing. It's a game where if you worried too much of what others are doing, you lose the game. So we need to forget about everyone else, focus on what we need to do."
The way Bangladesh reached in the semis it seemed they make it without any hurdle but Law mentioned the way was not smooth, boys made it with their strong mentality.
He said, "I think we have seen the crunch days. We played South Africa, the defending champions and we also played against Nepal in the quarter final which was in the balance there for a long time. So we have come through those two games. So, I think we will prepare for that situation but unfortunately on the day it comes down to how each team handle the pressure and how put the pressure back on the opposition. You know we did that in the last game against Nepal. We were under pressure with the bat but Miraz and Zakir had put the pressure back on Nepal and got us home. Hope we will continue to do that, it's not about whom we are playing, it's about worrying about what we need to do to win the game."