ICC
Hobart
Bangladesh have got their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup campaign underway in style by registering a hard-fought nine-run victory over the Netherlands in Hobart on Monday.
You need to bowl very well when you are defending a score of just 144/8 and that is exactly what Bangladesh produced as their quicks turned it on in style at Bellerive Oval.
Taskin Ahmed (4/25) set the tone when he removed Vikramjit Singh and Max O’Dowd with the first two balls of Netherlands’ run chase on his way to career best figures and he was well supported by Hasan Mahmud (2/15).
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan (1/32) was relatively expensive during his four overs and a pair of run outs in the field made it a good day for Bangladesh as they got their tournament started with a victory.
Shakib and Litton Das are among Bangladesh’s most experienced batters, but the pair combined for just 16 runs between them as the Netherlands produced a disciplined bowling effort. It was left to Afif Hossain to step up and the young left-hander produced the good with a quickfire 38 from just 27 deliveries to ensure his team was able to post a decent total.
It’s a good sign for Bangladesh that they can still prevail with smaller contributions from Shakib and Das and they will be looking to build on this performance when they take on South Africa in Sydney on Thursday.
Scores: Bangladesh 144 for 8 (Afif 38, van Meekeren 2-21, de Leede 2-29) beat Netherlands 135 (Ackermann 62, Taskin 4-25, Mahmud 2-15) by 9 runs.