Ireland assistant coach Gary Wilson said his sideis determined to show
fighting spirit despite Bangladesh firmly holding theupper hand in the
second and final cricket test.
“We are here to show the fighting spirit, and I think that’s the first
thingwe want to show tomorrow,” Wilson said after Day 2.
“It’s obviously going to be difficult. Bangladesh are on top of the
game;there’s absolutely no doubt about that. But one thing Irish teams
arerenowned for their fighting spirit, and we’re going to need that in
abundanceover the next three days.”
Ireland slumped to 98-5 in reply to Bangladesh’s 476 all out, leaving
themstill 378 runs behind and staring at the threat of a follow-on. The
visitorsalso suffered an innings-and-47-run defeat in the first Test in
Sylhet, andanother loss would hand Bangladesh a 2-0 series sweep.
Wilson, however, believes the batters currently at the crease have
thetemperament to resist Bangladesh bowlers.
“The two guys who are batting at the moment are proper batsmen –
really,really good batters. We’ll be backing them to dig deep. It’ll be
difficult,”he said.
“Bangladesh will undoubtedly have catchers around, they’ve got
accuratebowlers, and the pitch is starting to offer some assistance, so
it will bechallenging. But these guys showed a method in the last six or
seven overstoday, and they did well to get through that period. That will
be our firsttarget tomorrow morning.”
