Black Caps Black Book .../Diary - One Last Time

Bangladesh, they beat England, knocking them out of the World Cup and now they face our lads.

For me, I view this as the perfect match up heading into the quarter finals because Bangladesh will serve up a threat. But that threat will be countered by the fact that the Black Caps are strong favourites and are expected to win on the back of a rather unblemished run of pool play. 

This game, along with the context of the Black Caps already qualifying in top spot and having a bit of a bug going around the camp could be viewed as an opportunity to switch things up a bit and give the depth a run. Either way, whether it's a full strength side or there's a few changes the only goal is to win.

Whether Bangladesh are up for the challenge and launch themselves at the Black Caps or whether it's one way traffic, it's all about the win. 

When the knockout cricket rolls around, there's no time to even think about getting this guy some runs or giving that guy bowl, the only thing that matters is winning these games. This goes hand in hand with the mentality of our skipper and coach who have a ruthless streak as we've seen in pool play.

Playing Bangladesh now, is perfect because it will test the Black Caps in all facets. They have enough decent batsmen to offer a challenge to our bowlers, while not striking fear into our lads and not drastically altering our plans.

They also have bowlers who have been on the scene for a while now and have the ability to hit good areas as well as execute yorkers, bouncers and slower balls. Whether we are batting first and have to weather a new ball storm along with some solid slow bowling from Shakib al Hassan or if we're batting second and we have to chase a total, we will be tested to some degree.

This game will be about the Black Caps putting together a performance that resembles knockout cricket regardless of who is in the 11. While Bangladesh will be confident and will come hard at the Black Caps, from our perspective this game is all about the Black Caps doing what needs to be done.

From this point, the idea behind #DoYourJob begins to become more and more prominent. It's one thing for everyone to execute their roles in pool play but come the quarter finals the Black Caps will need to do this under pressure. Bangladesh serve as a nice bridge between the two stages of the World Cup and the only thing we as fans should worry about is getting that win.