Mahela Jayawardenes face showed signs of strains when a Sri Lankan reporter asked him a probing question about his teams three straight losses. He was to soon gather himself and after a short but curt reply moved on to the next question. Though,immediately after the press conference,Jayawardene walked down to the scribe and conveyed to him that he takes a lot of pride in leading the Sri Lankan team,and if anyone hinted otherwise,it really hurt him. The Lankan team need to show a similar ego when they take field in their last Asia Cup game against hosts Bangladesh on Tuesday. Regardless of the result,Jayawardenes men are out of the tournament but the result of the game will decide which of the two teams - India or Bangladesh - will face Pakistan in the final on Thurday. In spite of their good form in this tournament so far,one in which they ran Pakistan close and shocked India,Bangladesh will go into this game as underdogs because of their inconsistent record in the past. Bangladesh have never won an ODI contest involving more than two team. The closest they got to winning a title was when they reduced Sri Lanka 6/5 after positing 152 at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in the final of a tri-series in early 2009. Sri Lanka won that game by two wickets to deny the hosts their tryst with history. Before the World Cup last year,Bangladesh enjoyed a fine run when they beat New Zealand 4-0 at home. The disappointment of not reaching the knock-out stages of the World Cup,of which they were co-hosts,and a poor run of form that followed saw the team hit another low. But with a win against Sri Lanka,Bangladesh will once dare to dream. * Live on Neo Cricket,1.30 pm
