ICC World T20: Tamim’s ton ends Oman’s journey, Bangladesh make it to Super 10

Sports Sunday 13/March/2016 23:18 PM
By: Times News Service
ICC World T20: Tamim’s ton ends Oman’s journey, Bangladesh make it to Super 10

Dharamsala: Tamim Iqbal scored his maiden and first T20 century for Bangladesh and in the process snatching the game away from Oman in the Group A preliminary round match of the ICC World T20 Tournament at the HPCA ground here on Sunday.
Bangladesh won the rain-interuppted match by 54 runs (D/L method) with Oman finishing at 65 for 9 in 12 overs chasing 181 for win. More than Bangladesh’s bowling brilliance, Oman were done in by their soft dismissals.
Earlier, Oman skipper Sultan Ahmed won the toss and opted to field.
May be the rain and a shortened game was in his mind, but unfortunately the weather stayed dry through out Bangladesh innings and came back when Oman started their chase.
If Tamim’s innings (103 not out, 5 sixes, 10 fours, 68 balls) was an excellent exhibition of batting, once again single-handedly taking Bangladesh to an imposing 180 for two, Shabir Rahman too had his share of runs scoring 44 off 44 balls with one six and five fours.
Shakib Al Hasan remained with Tamim till end making an unbeaten 17.
Oman made a disatstrous start losing Zeeshan Maqsood (0), Khawar Ali (8), Adnan Illyas (13) and Aamir Kaleem (0) early, the daunting task was way beyond their reach.
With each rain interupptions the target became that much harder for the amateurs of Oman, who were playing against a ICC full-member team for the first time.
The D/L method kept on revising the target at each interupptions and the other Oman batsmen kept cracking under pressure. They were also up against quality Bangladesh bowlers.
After Jatinder Singh (25) departed the batsmen who followed skied the ball attempting to send it beyond ropes.
It was a procession thereafter, but this was another learning curve for the players of Oman. However, no pride is lost for Oman as this tournament definitely has been historical for them.
Earlier, continuing from where he left of against Ireland, Tamim was simply superb, though starting off slowly. He was severe on every Oman bowler but for Bilal Khan, who was the pick conceding only 16 runs in his four overs.
Tamim acknowledged that Oman bowled well initially.
“They were good at the start and scoring was difficult, but once I got into the groove and felt the ball in the middle,” said the Bangladesh opener, who smashed five sixes in addition to the 10 fours in his unbeaten 103.
Bangladesh were slow to start with Sultan opting for off-spinner Amir Ali along with Bilal Khan. The duo did trouble the openers, especially Soumya Sarkar,who struggled to put bat to ball.
Tamim on the other hand was content to stay put, which rewarded him later when Sultan started to try out his other bowlers.
Though Ajay Lalcheta, who holds the record of bowling a maiden in the first over of a T20 match, had the batsmen in leash.But after claiming Sarkar’s wicket he too was smashed by Tamim and Shabir.
Khawar Ali was the only other Oman bowler to pick a wicket.

SCOREBOARD
BANGLADESH
Tamim Iqbal (not out) 103
Soumya Sarkar b Lalcheta 12
Sabbir Rahman b Khawar Ali 44
Shakib Al Hasan (not out) 17
Extras (lb-1, w-3) 4
Total (2 wkts; 20 overs) 180
Did not bat: Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim†, Mohammad Mithun, Mashrafe Mortaza*, Abu Hider, Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain
Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-139.
Bowling: Bilal Khan 4-0-16-0; Amir Ali 4-0-28-0 (w-1); A. Lalcheta 3-0-35-1; M. Ansari 4-0-50-0 (w-2); Mehran Khan 1-0-11-0; Khawar Ali 3-0-24-1; Aamir Kaleem 1-0-15-0.
OMAN
Zeeshan Maqsood c Mahmudullah b T. Ahmed 0
Khawar Ali c M. Mortaza b Al Amin Hossain 8
Jatinder Singh c M. Mithun b M. Mortaza 25
Adnan Ilyas run out 19
Aamir Kaleem c M. Rahim b Shakib Al Hasan 0
Amir Ali st M. Rahim b Shakib Al Hasan 4
Mehran Khan c S. Rahman b Shakib Al Hasan 3
Sultan Ahmed c Mahmudullah b Shakib Al Hasan 1
A. Lalcheta c Mohammad Mithun b Sabbir Rahman 1
Munis Ansari (not out) 3
Bilal Khan (not out) 1
Extras (lb-2, w-4) 6
Total (9 wkts; 12 overs) 65
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-14, 3-44, 4-45, 5-50, 6-56, 7-59, 8-59, 9-64.
Bowling: Taskin Ahmed 2-0-8-1 (w-1); Al Amin Hossain 2-0-10-1; Abu Hider 2-0-15-0 (w-1); Shakib Al Hasan 3-0-15-4 (w-1); Mashrafe Mortaza 2-0-10-1; Sabbir Rahman 1-0-5-1 (w-1).