BAN vs NED, ICC T20 World cup 2024, Match Report: Shakib plays the lead, Bangladesh sniff Super Eights

Shakib's heroics secure B'desh's victory (X: T20WorldCup)

At 23-2, Bangladesh had to make a choice. They could have retreated into a shell or taken the attack to the Netherlands. Tanzid Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan opted for the second.

Bangladesh and the Netherlands were playing a T20 World Cup Group D fixture at Kingstown and it was a virtual knockout, with the winners all but securing a place in the Super Eights. Thanks to Shakib’s brilliant 64 not out off 46 balls, Bangladesh posted 159-5, a good total on a pitch that didn’t quite assist fluent stroke-play. They won the match by 25 runs, restricting the Netherlands to 134-8. Bangladesh can now look forward to the bigger battles ahead.

The Netherlands gave a good account of themselves at last year’s World Cup (50-over format). Here, they started off well by taking the wicket of Najmul Hossain Shanto in the second over followed by Litton Das’s scalp in the fourth. Off-spinner Aryan Dutta, brought back to the side, bowled well in the Powerplay and claimed both the wickets.

Shakib came and almost instantly upped the ante by hitting four fours off Logan van Beek that took Bangladesh’s score to 54-2 at the end of the Powerplay. It set the platform for a winning total.

Tanzid at the other end was aggressive right from the outset. He took 18 runs off a Vivian Kingma over and was unfazed when the bowler hit him on the grille. He added 48 runs with Shakib for the third wicket before hitting against the wind and giving a catch to Bas de Leede at backward square leg off Paul van Meekeren. Tanzid perished for 35 off 26 balls.

The onus fell on Shakib to ensure Bangladesh didn’t surrender the initiative and the former captain was up to the task. His fifty came off 38 balls and it was a knock that did the job for his team. Mahmudullah also contributed via a 21-ball 25 and Jaker Ali hit three fours in the penultimate over to take the run-rate close to eight per over. Ali remained unbeaten on 14 off seven balls.

The Netherlands lost both their openers, Michael Levitt and Max O’Dowd, inside the first six overs and laboured to 36-2 at the end of the Powerplay. But Vikramjit Singh hit back-to-back sixes off Shakib before slog-sweeping Rishad Hossain over deep mid-wicket. With the ball coming into him, Vikramjit was enjoying his stay out there in the middle. But Shanto, the Bangladesh captain, intelligently brought Mahmudullah into the attack, an off-spinner who took the ball away from the left-hander. Vikramjit gave the bowler a premeditated charge and was stumped for 26 off 16 balls.

Sybrand Engelbrecht and Scott Edwards were going along nicely and the equation came down to 49 off 33 balls. But Rishad (3-33) foxed Engelbrecht (33, 22 balls) with a leg-break and accounted for de Leede a couple of deliveries later. That was that.

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