Taskin Ahmed bowled a high-quality last over, giving away eight runs
when Netherlands required 17 to win, to help Bangladesh start their
World T20 campaign with an eight-run win in Dharamsala. The game had
swung in nearly every over as neither team could take a hold of the
contest.
Mudassar Bukhari and Pieter Seelaar kept Netherlands in the hunt with a
16-run penultimate over, after Tom Cooper was dismissed off the first
ball. Bukhari was run-out in the last over, and neither
Seelaar nor
Logan van Beek could find the boundaries.
Ultimately, Tamim Iqbal's unbeaten 83, as the rest of the Bangladesh
batting line-up struggled, Mashrafe Mortaza's boundary-less last three
overs and Taskin's accurate last over combined for Bangladesh's win.
The game was in Netherlands' grasp when they needed 54 runs in the last
five overs with seven wickets in hand. Captain Peter Borren started off
the assault with a one-handed sweep through midwicket for four.
Subsequently, he was dropped in the same region by Nasir Hossain before
the same fielder caught him at the end of the over.
In the next over, Mortaza, who conceded one four in his spell, was
unlucky not to have Cooper's wicket after the ball struck the off stump
but the bails didn't budge. Van der Merwe was removed later in the over
though, the thin edge carrying to the Mushfiqur Rahim.
Earlier, Al-Amin Hossain had removed Wesley Barresi in the fifth over,
but his opening partner Stephan Myburgh and Ben Cooper kept the runs
flowing. Nasir, then, provided Bangladesh with the breakthrough by
having Myburgh bowled in the ninth over for a run-a-ball 29. Borren got
into his work immediately, having reverse-swept Nasir for two boundaries
in the same over. The next 26 balls yielded no boundaries off the bat.
In the first innings, the pace pair of Timm van der Gugten and Paul van
Meekeren combined to take five wickets for 38 runs in eight overs. Van
der Gugten's double-strike in the 15th over stalled Bangladesh's late
charge, and van Meekeren made up for his dropped catch in the first over
with figures of 2 for 17.
Tamim, who hit his first T20I fifty since December 2012, was the only
batsman to thwart the bowling. His 58-ball 83, which was Bangladesh's
third highest T20 score, included six fours and three sixes.
Tamim, while assessing conditions in the early part of his innings, took
plenty of singles before lacing a beautiful cut off van Meekeren in the
sixth over. His first six was a mis-hit that just cleared long-off but
he showed his form with his next boundary - a late dab past short third
man.
After Shakib Al Hasan's wicket, Tamim changed gears and hit van der
Merwe for a straight six in the 13th over but survived a stumping chance
off the following delivery. He smashed Logan van Beek for two fours in
the next over but struggled to farm the strike as wickets fell
frequently around him. He hit only one more four and a flat six, which
came in the last over. The rest of the batsmen's struggles showed just
how important Tamim's knock was.
Collect From : http://www.espncricinfo.com/