Home ›› 25 Oct 2022 ›› Front
Taskin Ahmed stole the show with the ball to hand Bangladesh their first win in their opening match of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia as they beat Netherlands by nine runs in Hobart on Monday.
The win was Bangladesh’s first-ever in the Super 12 format since it was introduced in 2016, and their first win over any team on the main stage since their victory over West Indies in the inaugural edition in 2007, 15 years back.
Batting first, Bangladesh managed 144-8 on the board, courtesy of innings from Afif Hossain (38 off 27 balls), Najmul Hossain Shanto (25 off 20 balls), and Mosaddek Hossain (20* off 12 balls).
Then, Taskin picked two wickets in the first two deliveries of the Dutch innings, which they could never recover from, and some clueless running aided their landslide between the wickets, which cost two wickets.
Taskin, with two wickets later in the innings, ended with figures of 4-25, the best by a Bangladeshi pacer since Mustafizur Rahman’s 5-22 against New Zealand in the 2016 T20 World Cup.
He was ably supported by Hasan Mahmud, who took two wickets giving away just 15 runs in his quota of four overs.
“Looking at the wicket, 140-150 looked like a good total. At the start, I wanted to keep my basics right, to swing the ball from a good length. I was bowling according to the demand of the wicket and condition,” Taskin, the player of the match, said in the post-match press conference.
The pacer added that it was a relief that they won because before Monday, they just won only four out of their 16 matches this year.
“The biggest relief is that we won. We were failing to win for a long time. It was a mental pressure. Our target going forward will be to win more and play better cricket. Winning the first match in the World Cup is big,” Taskin said.
Bangladesh had gotten off to a good start courtesy of their openers Najmul and Soumya Sarkar (14 off 14 balls) as the pair added 43 in 5.1 overs, Bangladesh’s highest opening stand in over a year.
But both Soumya and Najmul were out in consecutive overs, and soon skipper Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, and Yasir Ali Chowdhury followed suit, meaning the Tigers were down to 76-5 by the 11th over.
But a vigilant Afif put 44 runs for the sixth wicket with Nurul Hasan Sohan (13 off 18 balls) and kept the scoreboard ticking.
After they were both dismissed in the 18th over, Mosaddek took charge and his 20 off 12 balls, where he hit two fours and a six, took Bangladesh to 144-8.
Defending 145, Bangladesh got off to the best possible start as Taskin sent Vikramjit Singh and Bas de Leede back for golden ducks with the first two deliveries of the innings. Then, some inspired fielding from Afif and Najmul ran out Max O’Dowd (8 off 8 balls) and Tom Cooper (0 from 0 balls), leaving Netherlands at 15-4.
A 44-run stand between Colin Ackermann and skipper Scott Edwards (16 off 24 balls) for the fifth wicket gave the Dutch some hope, but Shakib got rid of Edwards when the batter tried a reverse sweep to find Hasan Mahmud at point.
Mahmud then rattled Tim Pringle’s (1 off 6 balls) stumps, before getting rid of Logan van Beek (2 off 5 balls) to send Netherlands even further down.
They still had hope in Ackermann, who scored his first T20I fifty on the day. But it was Taskin’s day as he got rid of the Dutch batter for 62 off 48 balls in his final over, along with the wicket of Shariz Ahmad, to pick up his fourth and ensure their win.
Soumya then closed out the game as he dismissed Paul van Meekeren in the final ball of the innings to bowl the Dutch out.
