But at least they ran Pakistan close. In the other semi-final, India ran riot over Sri Lanka, bowling them out for 45. Sri Lanka had a second-string side on the field, but they wouldn’t have bargained for the basic mistakes they made, like the three run-outs in their innings.

Bangladesh, who can call on most of their first-choice players, start the third-place match as clear favourites, but the testing conditions at Nisshin can even up contests that look one-sided on paper. And both teams will have the motivation of bringing joy to contingents that have endured mostly barren Asian Games campaigns.

After a run-less Australia tour where Litton Das made three ducks in a row in the Test series, he was out for 2 against Pakistan. Litton faced just three balls, off which he attempted two reverse-sweeps, the second of them costing him his wicket. It was a perplexing innings on a pitch that offered a lot of turn and awkward bounce. Sometimes it’s hard to say if a batter is really out of form when he’s made a string of low scores, but Litton, who has led Bangladesh impressively in this format over the last couple of years, will want to break out of this run quickly.

Sahan Arachchige couldn’t quite muster up a captain’s performance against India, especially after his top three batters fell for ducks. He scored 9 before falling to a sweep shot against Axar Patel. He had earlier taken two wickets with his offbreaks. The 30-year-old allrounder now has the chance to put together a better show and inspire his team to the bronze.

Both teams could test their bench strength in the bronze-medal match.

Sri Lanka (probable): Sineth Jayawardena, Lasith Croospulle,  Sohan de Livera (wk),  Nuwanidu Fernando,  Sahan Arachchige (capt),  Ashen Bandara,  Chamika Karunaratne,  Wanuja Sahan,  Tharindu Ratnayake,  Vijayakanth Viyaskanth,  Binura Fernando.

Bangladesh (probable): Tanzid Hasan,  Saif Hassan, Litton Das (capt),  Parvez Hossain Emon (wk),  Towhid Hridoy (c),  Mosaddek Hossain,  Mahedi Hasan,  Rishad Hossain,  Aliss Al Islam/Nasum Ahmed,  Shoriful Islam,  Mustafizur Rahman/Hasan Mahmud.

[Ceicinfo]

The World Cup will be staged between October 2 – to commemorate the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, who spent two decades working as a lawyer in South Africa – and will conclude on November 21. The semi-finals and the final will have a reserve day.

South Africa, the co-host in group B, begin their campaign against New Zealand – a re-match of the 2026 T20 World Cup semi-final – at Newlands on October 9. Zimbabwe, the co-host in group A, will face Afghanistan in Bulawayo on October 11 to start their journey.

The top three teams of each group will move into the Super 7 phase, with the better fourth-place finisher across the two groups taking the seventh spot. Several teams already have their designations for the Super 7 phase and there is a chance of a second India vs Pakistan game in Cape Town on November 7.

• A1: India
• A2: Australia
• A3: Pakistan
• AB4: England
• B1: New Zealand
• B2: South Africa
• B3: Sri Lanka

If either Bangladesh or Afghanistan or any other team who are not seeded, get through their groups, they will assume seeding of the seeded team that gets knocked out.

In addition to hosting the preliminary round of the World Cup, Windhoek will host three group games, two of them involving 2019 champions England. The newly constructed Mosi-oa-Tunya Stadium in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe got the final game of the group stages – India vs Zimbabwe on October 24 and three Super 7 matches. According to the ICC’s pre-seeding, these will be India vs Australia on October 28, Pakistan vs England on October 30 and Australia vs New Zealand on November 1.

There will be five matches played at Durban, including the final one of the Super 7 between A1 (India) and B3 (Sri Lanka) on November 14. In all there are 12 venues – Windhoek in Namibia, Victoria Falls, Harare and Bulawayo in Zimbabwe and Cape Town, Paarl, Johannesburg, Tshwane (Centurion), Bloemfontein, Durban, KuGompo City (East London) and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth).

[Cricinfo]