Teams no longer take us lightly, says Bangladesh coach

The sub-continent side reached the second round of the tournament for the first time thanks to a stunning victory over 1983 champions India and debutants Bermuda during the group phase.

But since reaching the Super Eights, Whatmore's team have found things difficult.

A 10-wicket mauling against defending champions Australia was followed by a nine-wicket thrashing by New Zealand.

As the team prepare to meet top-ranked South Africa on Saturday, Whatmore said that Bangladesh were suffering the heavy defeats as opponents were no longer underestimating them.

''People are now not taking us as lightly as they may have done in the past,'' Whatmore told reporters at the team's hotel.

''We talk about minnows and all that, (but) we're no longer minnows and we need to up our performance a little bit more.'' Some fans in Bangladesh were so upset by the manner of the defeats that they burnt effigies of captain Habibul Bashar.

While such incidents are nothing out of the ordinary in Pakistan and India, it was the first such occurrence in Bangladesh and reflected how expectations have changed within a matter of weeks.

Whatmore, who guided Sri Lanka to the title in 1996, has been irritated by his current team's failure to apply themselves in the Super Eights.

''Personally I was a bit disappointed because we can do better than that,'' he said. ''Our objective is to push the opposition and that's what we're trying to do for the remainder of these games.

''In the initial phase we realised our objective which was to qualify. We had one bad game against Sri Lanka (in the group stage) but we deserve to be here.

''We just need to score some more runs. We've lost the toss twice and have been asked to bat on both occasions.'' Bangladesh opted to go through their paces during a gym session on Wednesday after torrential rain prevented them from taking part in any outdoor activities.

Reuters PDS RN0148

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