Tamim makes a promise

As Bangladesh prepare for Saturday's last group match against formidable South Africa, vice-captain Tamim Iqbal issued a warning that the Tigers are yet to play their best cricket in this ICC Cricket World Cup.

"We are on the right track and moving forward to our target as we already have won three matches out of five as per our expectation. Everything is okay with the team, but still we believe that we are yet to play our best cricket in the tournament," stated Tamim while talking with reporters at the indoor facility of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

Many might fear the South African attack as the Proteas have a lot of variety in their bowling that has two fast bowlers like Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and everybody is waiting eagerly to see how the Tigers take the challenge against them in their last Group B match.

"I think it's a good opportunity for us to show the world how good we are," said the dashing left-hander when asked whether they were scared about Steyn and Morkel.

Tamim however said that they were not reluctant after their two consecutive victories against England and Netherlands in Chittagong, rather everybody was hungry to improve the performance graph.

"The environment is really fantastic after those two wins but we are not reluctant. Yes, as per our target we won three matches but nobody is thinking that the job is done because we have also a target of qualifying for the quarterfinals stage. Honestly speaking, everybody is hungry for how they can improve their performance," informed Tamim.

"We want to finish our World Cup campaign in style. We are hopeful about doing that because we are now on the winning path," he added.

Bangladesh played four World Cups since 1999 but none of the Bangladeshi batsmen could achieve a three-digit, and interestingly even a hundred-run partnership didn't come their way, but the confident Tamim promised that at least a hundred-run partnership would be seen in this World Cup to break the jinx.

"For the last two days I heard about this matters many times. And I also want to make it happen. You know I also dream of a hundred. I can promise you that at least you will see a hundred-run partnership in this World Cup," promised Tamim.

Tamim was confident because he was hardly bothered about his form.

"I played one 70-run innings besides two 40 odds. I would have been happy with these scores few years back, but I myself have raised my own standard in my batting and that's why I consider it a failure if I make 40 runs. And despite two ducks, I don't think I have any technical problem in my batting," said Tamim.

The southpaw batsman also smilingly said that he would prefer to know the result of the West Indies-England match rather than watching the game.