Tamim to make late call on fitness

Tamim Iqbal will be given the chance to decide whether he is fit enough to face South Africa on Sunday in Bangladesh's opening Cricket World Cup fixture.

The experienced opener was struck on the left wrist in the nets earlier this week, before being cleared of any fracture.

On the eve of Bangladesh facing South Africa at The Oval, Tigers skipper Mashrafe Mortaza indicated Tamim would decide whether or not he features.

"Tamim will give a final call on how he's feeling because [it] all depends on Tamim," said Mortaza.

Bangladesh will be eager for their star batsman to play. In his two previous innings at The Oval, during the 2017 Champions Trophy, Tamim scored 128 and 95 against England and Australia respectively.

On this day 20 years ago, Bangladesh beat Pakistan for the first time in @cricketworldcup 1999 at Northampton! #OnThisDay #BCB pic.twitter.com/TtNdA1j8kn
— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) May 31, 2019

South Africa suffered a batting collapse in their opening match against England, slumping from 129-2 to 207 all out after being set 312.

Yet veteran spinner Imran Tahir, who will play his 100th ODI on Sunday, said: "We are very positive. We have been beaten by the very good England team who has been dominating world cricket.

"It's just that they played very well on that day, and I still think we kept them to 310, which was a great effort from us.

"If we learn from our mistakes, I think we'll be fine."