The State of Play
The Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup represents one of the most exciting phases of the tournament as the best teams on the planet converge on each other.
Having dropped the rubble from group stages, only the best remain and Australia play Bangladesh with both teams confident they can secure a place in the semi-finals.
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The Aussies come through the groups without a scratch, beating defending champions England and collecting the maximum eight points.
However, they were given a slight scare against Scotland, winning with just two balls to spare.
The Tartan Army set an original score of 180 after the initial 20 overs but Mitchell Marsh and his men managed to just about get the job done, finishing on 186.
It was another fantastic innings for Travis Head, who will need to be on top form from now until the end if Australia are to win another T20 World Cup, last winning the tournament in 2021.
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Glenn Maxwell was on song in the bowling, taking two more wickets – his first and second of the summer.
The Baggy Greens’ squad is stacked with talent and Marsh has urged his team-mates to refocus following the conclusion of the group stages.
He said: “The World Cup starts again now. We’ve got a lot of trust in our group that we can keep winning games of cricket.
“T20 is a hard format, you can be slightly off and lose to anyone.”
Bangladesh ended their group stage campaign with a comfortable win over Nepal.
It was a well-rounded performance, with six of their 10 batters hitting double digits as they racked up 106 runs.
Against South Africa, the Tigers looked more than a match for one of the tournament favourites.
But this is a completely different challenge as they must overcome three top teams if they want to make it to the semi-finals.
The best Fantasy XI from Set 4 of the #T20WorldCup 2024 💥
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As well as Australia, Bangladesh will face India and Afghanistan.
Expected line-ups
Australia: Warner, Head, Marsh (c), Maxwell, Stoinis, David, Wade (wk), Cummins, Starc, Zampa, Hazlewood
Bangladesh: Hasan, Sarkar, Das (wk), Hossain Shanto (c), Hridoy, Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Hossain, Ahmed, Sakib, Rahman
How to watch
Sky have the rights to show the T20 World Cup to UK viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every game live. Coverage gets underway on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from 1am UK time on Friday morning.
In India, the games can be streamed on Disney + Hotstar app and website. They are also available across the Star Sports Network.
🚨 A Bangladesh player has been fined for an incident that occurred during the match against Nepal.
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Prediction
Bangladesh are facing one of three teams in the tournament to have won all four of their group-stage games.
Aside from South Africa, there were not really any teams of a similar standard to Australia and this first Super Eight game will be a big step up.
Having said that, Bangladesh are capable of giving any team in the world a game on their day.
It will likely be closer than many think in this one, but the Aussies should still come out on top.
