In one of the biggest matches of the ICC World T20 Qualifiers, Bangladesh took on Netherlands at the scenic Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. Both teams needed to win this match, knowing that there was another formidable opponent in Ireland in the same group.
Like yesterday, teams were not certain of how the pitch would behave, hence this meant that Netherlands, who won the toss, chose to field first. The injured Mustafizur Rahman missed out for Bangladesh and it was again on Taskin Ahmed and Al-Amin Hossain to take up the bowling responsibility.
Bangladesh, who came off a good campaign in the Asia Cup, were looking to get off to a good start. Soumya Sarkar looked good in the first few overs as he hit a couple of boundaries before he was caught behind for 15.
Opener Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman then stitched together a 42-run partnership and looked set to take their team to a competitive total after having been 60/1 in just over 8 overs. However, in-form batsman Sabbir was dismissed by Roelof van der Merwe, trapping the batsman in front of the wickets.
Although none of the other Bangladeshi batsmen built on the starts they got, Tamim carried his natural game and helped his way to an unbeaten knock of 83 off just 58 balls. The opener's knock included six fours and three sixes.
Timm van der Gugten picked up three wickets for the Netherlands while Paul van Meekeren finished with figures of 2/17 in 4 overs. Van der Merwe and Peter Borren picked up one wicket each.
Netherlands, in their innings, started off quite well scoring 39 runs in the powerplay. Stephan Myburgh, who has been an attacking threat at the top-order for the Dutch, struggled his way to a run-a-ball 29.
Ben Cooper looked good in his time at the crease, but was cleaned up by Shakib Al-Hasan for 20 off 15 balls. Captain, Borren and Tom Cooper were involved in a 35-run partnership that looked like taking the game away from Bangladesh before Borren became Shakib's second victim.
Van der Merwe, who is known for his lusty blows, could not get going as he fell cheaply after making one run. A couple overs later, a struggling Tom Cooper departed after making 15 off 18 balls.
Mudassar Bukhari hit one six and two fours to cause some late scare for the Bangladesh team. However, once he was run-out all hope was lost for the Dutch and Bangladesh started off their qualifying campaign on a winning note, edging their opponents by 8 runs.
Brief Scores: Bangladesh 153/7, 20 overs (Tamim Iqbal 83*; van der Gugten 3/21, van Meekeren 2/17) beat Netherlands 145/7, 20 overs (Borren 29, Myburgh 29; Al-Amin Hossain 2/24, Shakib Al-Hasan 2/28) by 8 runs.
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