Bangladesh held their nerve to usurp Nepal in a keenly-contested ICC T20 World Cup game by 22 runs in St Vincent. Nepal finished with 85 as they looked to overhaul the target of 108. On the back of this victory, Bangladesh are through to Super 8s.
In the game against South Africa, it was Nepal’s middle and lower-order that succumbed to pressure. Today, it was the turn of the top-order to lose the plot as Nepal found themselves in all kinds of trouble at 20 for 3. By then, Rohit Paudeul, the skipper, Anil Sah and Kushal Bhurtel were back in the hut. It soon became 26 for 5, with Sandeep Jora and Asif Sheikh trudging back to the pavilion.
Nepal did make a comeback of sorts, with Kushal Malla and Dipendrs Singh Airee sharing an alliance of 52, before the former fell to Mustafizur Rahman. It was the veteran seamer’s next over that finally sealed the deal for Bangladesh. Mustafizur bowled a slew of cutters across the right-handed Airee, with the batter not able to connect any of his shots. Mustafizur also was rewarded with Airee’s scalp. That wicket triggered a collapse as Nepal lost four wickets without adding a single run and were bowled out in the last over.
Tanzim Hasan was clearly the best bowler on show, bagging four wickets for just seven runs. The young pace bowler swung the new ball and was adept at bowling hard lengths as well. Meanwhile, Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur shared five scalps between them. Earlier, Sompal Kami, Airee, Paudel and Sandeep Lamichhane took two wickets each, with Bangladesh getting cleaned up for 106.
The curious part of Bangladesh’s innings was that none of the batters crossed the 20-run mark. Shakib top-scored with a 22-ball 17. Five other batters got to the double-digit mark. In the final analysis, Bangladesh had enough runs on the board in conditions which offered variable bounce and swing to the pace bowlers.