Friday 19 / April / 2024
Dharamsala: One-man show by Tamim Iqbal and some miserly bowling by the bowlers proved good enough to help Bangladesh steal a close win against the Netherlands in the Group A preliminary round opener of the 2016 ICC World Twent20 at the HPCA stadium in Dharamsala on Wednesday.
A late flourish by Mudassar Bukhari, who smashed a five-ball 14 with one four and a six, did nothing good for the Dutch as Taskin Ahmed bowled a beautiful last over, which gave very little, and helped the Tigers clinch the issue by a small margin of eight runs.
Unlike Tamim for Bangladesh, the Netherlands hardly saw their batsmen contributing much with the highest individual score reading 29 to the name of Stephen Myburgh and skipper Peter Borren.
The next best scorers for the Netherlands were Ben Cooper (20) and Tom Cooper (15) and also 17 off extras, but nevertheless these small contributions helped them almost touching the wire.
Mudassar’s run out and Taskin’s brilliance wrote the climax for the first match. The Dutch could manage only 145 for seven in reply.
The wicket looked good for batting as man of the match Tamim exhibited but none of the others did look to make the maximum out of it.
As the Netherlands skipper Peter Borren said: “We lost it in the end, while bowling as well as batting, when it looked we had the match in grasp.”
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza complimented tight bowling by his bowlers and the special effort by Tamim, who has comeback to form.
Mortaza said: “I am relieved with the opening victory and I hope this will set the momentum.
“The conditions will be different in the next two games because we will be playing night games, in cold conditions.”
During the presentation ceremony, Tamim said: “It was pleasing to play well, but I must say the wicket wasn’t the easiest and the Dutch bowlers were bowling good line and length. I thought we were 50 runs short.”
“It was not an easy wicket to play, The ball was coming slow and there was odd bounce and spin, This was such a wicket where you had to play the waiting game and pick the bad balls to hit.”
“I have been playing well in recent times, I did well in BPL and PSL and that confidence helped me here,” Tamim, who scored his maiden half century in T20 Internationals, added.
Tamim stands tall
Earlier, Bangladesh batting revolved around Tamim Iqbal, who despited witnessing wickets falling on the other side, kept his focus intact and steered his team to a decent target.
Tamim’s opening partner Soumya did show some promise belting a six and a boundary, but could not keep going, perisihing after making just 15 runs. He was caught behind by Baressi off Van Meekeren.
Behind Soumya there appeared a procession as wickets fell at regular intervals on one end and on the other end runs flowed freely from Tamim’s bat.
Unfortunately for the Asia Cup finalists their senior and most experienced players like Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rehman failed to fire.
Shakib was snapped well by Myburgh off Peter Borren before Timm van der Gugten castled Asia Cup star Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim in the same over. And Nasir Hossain along with skipper Mashrafe Mortaza joining the procession Bangladesh total moved to 138 for 7 in 19 overs.
With just six balls remaining, Tamim hit a towering six and took a single. Araft Sunny, who came in at the fall of Mortaza’s wicket, played two dot balls and belted a 93- metre six to compensate and then snatched two runs of the last ball to finish at 153 for seven.
Tamim’s great effort saw him hit three sixes and eight fours for his unbeaten 58-ball 83. For the Dutch, the pick of the bowlers was Tim van Der Gugten, who snatched three wickets.
SCOREBOARD
BANGLADESH
Tamim Iqbal (not out) 83
S. Sarkar c Barresi b van Meekeren 15
Sabbir Rahman lbw van der Merwe 15
Shakib Al Hasan c Myburgh b Borren 5
Mahmudullah b van der Gugten 10
Mushfiqur Rahim b van der Gugten 0
Nasir Hossain c M. Bukhari b van Meekeren 3
Mashrafe Mortaza c T. Cooper b van der Gugten 7
Arafat Sunny (not out) 8
Extras (lb-4, w-3) 7
Total (7 wkts; 20 overs) 153
Did not bat: Taskin Ahmed, Al Amin Hossain
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-60, 3-78, 4-111, 5-112, 6-127, 7-137.
Bowling: Mudassar Bukhari 4-0-31-0; T. van der Gugten 4-0-21-3 (w-1); PA van Meekeren 4-0-17-2 (w-1); RE van der Merwe 3-0-28-1 (w-1); L. van Beek 4-0-43-0; P. Borren 1-0-9-1.
NETHERLANDS
S. Myburgh b Nasir Hossain 29
W. Barresi c S. Rahman b Al Amin 9
B. Cooper b Shakib Al Hasan 20
P. Borren c N. Hossain b Shakib 29
T. Cooper c Arafat Sunny b Al Amin 15
R. van der Merwe c M. Rahim b M. Mortaza 1
P. Seelaar (not out) 7
Mudassar Bukhari run out 14
L. van Beek (not out) 4
Extras (b-5, lb-11, w-1) 17
Total (7 wkts; 20 overs) 145
Did not bat: T. van der Gugten, P. van Meekeren
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-53, 3-77, 4-112, 5-114, 6-121, 7-140.
Bowling: Taskin Ahmed 4-0-21-0; Al Amin Hossain 3-0-24-2 (w-1); Arafat Sunny 2-0-10-0; Nasir Hossain 2-0-24-1; Mahmudullah 1-0-8-0; Mashrafe Mortaza 4-0-14-1; Shakib Al Hasan 4-0-28-2.
Player of the match: Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh)
