Bangladesh win shuts the door on Sri Lanka

Bangladesh beat the Netherlands by 25 runs in a crucial Group D match to edge closer to a place in the T20 World Cup Super 8s in their match played at Kingstown, St. Vincent on Thursday.

The result meant that Sri Lanka were knocked out of the tournament with no hope of reaching the Super 8.  

Inserted to bat, Bangladesh posted 159-5 on the board thanks to a half-century from Shakib Al Hasan. Shakib was the glue in the innings finishing unbeaten on 64 off 46 balls (9 fours). Spinner Aryan Dutt started well getting the wickets of Bangladesh Captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Litton Das inside the powerplay. Tanzid Hasan and Shakib counterattacked to stitch a 48-run stand for the third wicket until Paul van Meekeren broke it. But with Shakib still at the wicket Bangladesh got 54 off the last five overs mostly in boundaries. Dutt and van Meekeren were impressive with the ball but the others weren’t disciplined.

The Dutch kept the game tight until the 15th over but an excellent turnaround from the Bangladesh bowlers in the last six overs shifted the game in their favour. The match was in the balance at that stage with Netherlands needing 56 off 36 with 7 wickets in hand, but things fell apart for them with the wicket of Sybrand Engelbrecht (33) who was looking really good in the middle. Leg-spinner Rishad Hossain, who got some punishment in his first over, came back beautifully and played a key role in turning the balance towards Bangladesh with two wickets in one over.

Mutafizu Rahman then came to the party, making the batters dance to the turn of his off-cutters and making it hard to get bat on ball, let alone score heavily. Eventually, what seemed like a close game turned into a comprehensive win for Bangladesh.

Scores: Bangladesh 159-5 (20) (Tanzid Hasan 35, Shakib Al Hasan 64*, Mahmudullah 25, Aryan Dutt 2/17, Paul van Meekeren 2/15)

Netherlands 134-8 (20) (Vikramjit Singh 26, Sybrand Engelbrecht 33, Scott Edwards 25, Taskin Ahmed 2/30, Rishad Hossain 3/33)