Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan insists they have nothing to fear when they tackle India for a place in the World Cup semifinals after giving in-form New Zealand a huge scare on Friday.
The Tigers went down fighting by three wickets at Seddon Park in their last Pool A match to finish in fourth place in the group and set up a quarterfinal showdown with Pool B winners and defending champions India in front of 90,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 19.
"Obviously we can take this confidence ahead. The way we played I think it's very good and that will help us in the quarterfinal immensely," said Shakib, who led Bangladesh in the absence of injured captain Mashrafe Mortaza.
"We haven't thought about the quarterfinal yet but it's going to be exciting and there will be a lot of fans cheering for them. So we will be ready as this will be our first ever quarterfinal."
He added: "To be honest, our first target was to qualify for the quarterfinals. Now it's a one-off game and if we play well on the day anything can happen, so we will prepare ourselves as well as we can and I think boys will be up for it."
Mohammad Mahmudullah hit his second successive hundred with a brilliant knock of 128 not out to guide Bangladesh to 288-7 as New Zealand failed for the first time in six games to bowl out their opponents.
"It was disappointing to come up short in this type of match. It was an excellent game and could have gone either way but in the end they were the better side on the day," said Hasan, who took 4-55 as Bangladesh opened the attack with spinners from both ends. That allowed Bangladesh to get rid of dangerous Brendon McCullum (eight) and Kane Williamson (one) early.
"That was the plan. The ball was holding and took some spin and that worked out but it may not work in other games," said Shakib.
