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David slayed Goliath with a sling and five stones. The David in this series has so far cast two of his five stones, and has not yet been able to get in a telling blow.

Bangladesh has been comprehensively beaten by Pakistan in the two games so far of this 5 match series. Is it worth persevering with them for the remaining three games?

On the evidence of not only this series, but also their drubbing by South Africa recently, it would appear that anyone backing them is just throwing money down the drain.

Backing long priced outsiders is fine, but to justify it, they need to win once in a while to justify that strategy long term.

In the world cup last year, Bangladesh beat South Africa at odds of 21.0, they beat New Zealand at 11.0 in a warm up game, and of course they famously eliminated India from that world cup after beating them at odds of 12.0.

However, that was nearly a year ago. What has changed since then? Why have they not repeated those feats recently?

Long serving captain Bashar has retired, as has the hugely influential spinner and late order slogger Rafifique. However, the main contributors in those famous wins a year ago, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Amhed,  Mohammed Ashraful, Abdur Razzak and Mashrafe Mortaza are still there.

In have come the exciting youngsters Junaid Siddique and Shariar Nafeez, and Siddique especially has demonstrated on a couple of occasions his amazing ability at the top of the order.

Individually, the Bangladesh top order has shown their ability in isolated innings. The Biggest problem they have had in the last year is that they have failed to click collectively as a unit. They have failed to build big partnerships and invariably in most games have lost too many wickets early on to post, or chase a meaningful total.

So, the question is, is this failure to collectively click terminal, or a blip?

A blip is normally short, but it seems this Bangladesh one seems prolonged. However, having seen them play over the last few years, I am confident that it’s not terminal. I am convinced they can click together, and when they do, they will be more then a match for any side.

Enough about David for now, what about Goliath?

For this 3rd game, Pakistan will be missing one of their big guns, Younis Khan, for the remainder of the series. Also rumours that Umar Gul, a main strike bowler could be rested.

There are some weather doubts around too In Lahore and once again D/L could come into play.

Compared to the first game, Bangladesh improved markedly for the last game and had periods where they looked like they could at make a close game of it. They posted 225-8 in 48 overs despite slipping to 100-5 at one stage, and if they had not spilled a couple of early catches in Pakistan’s reply, they could have gone close to causing an upset.

I believe we saw the first signs in last game that Bangladesh are getting into some sort of form and, coupled with Pakistan fielding a slightly weaker side, we should at least see a much closer contest tomorrow.

Three games to go, I remain convinced that Bangladesh will click as a unit again in at least one of them.

David has used his sling, the first two stones have not hurt Goliath, but he still has those three remaining stones, and with his aim getting better each time, I expect Goliath to be floored soon.

Therefore my suggestion remains:

LAY Pakistan @ 1.07 currently on Betfair for 1 point liability

Bigjoe.