Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Mustafizur Rahman took seven wickets between them on Sunday as Bangladesh beat Nepal by 21 runs to claim the last Super Eight place at the ICC T20 cricket World Cup.
Bangladesh join India, Afghanistan and Australia in one Super Eight group while the US, England, the West Indies and South Africa play in the other. The Super Eight stage starts tomorrow.
In a thrilling, low-scoring match, Bangladesh’s qualifying hopes looked to be in the balance when they was bowled out for 106 in 19.2 overs after losing the toss.
Photo: AP
Yet Tanzim (4-7) bowled his four overs consecutively, leaving Nepal’s innings in disarray at 26-5 after the seventh over. Nepal could not recover and eventually were bowled out for 85 in the last over on a treacherous pitch at Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
“We just wanted to keep things very simple,” Tanzim said. “We didn’t panic, we knew could defend this score and we were very confident about that.”
PAKISTAN BOW OUT
Earlier, Pakistan needed allrounder Shaheen Shah Afridi to show off his bowling and batting skills in a three-wicket consolation win over Ireland at Lauderhill, Florida.
Afridi destroyed Ireland’s top-order batters with 3-22 and then smashed a couple of sixes in his unbeaten 13 off five balls as he guided Pakistan to a scrappy 111-7 in 18.5 overs to win its last Group A game.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam was 32 not out and helplessly watched another batting collapse before Afridi’s little cameo came to Pakistan’s rescue.
After Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl first, Afridi’s twin-wicket burst in the opening over had Ireland reeling at only 2 runs for the loss of two wickets. Ireland lost another batter to make it 4-3, and were then 15-4 off the first three overs.
Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim grabbed 3-8 in four overs to restrict Ireland to 106-9 on a lively wicket which had been under cover for most of the last week because of heavy rain in Florida, which had prevented the previous three games at the tournament venue.
“We lost back-to-back wickets, but managed to get over the line in the end,” Babar said. “We’ve got to go home, chat and see where we lacked and then come back.”
CONSOLATION WIN
Later, Sri Lanka ended their disappointing campaign with an 83-run win over the Netherlands in the final match in Group D at Gros Islet, Saint Lucia.
The Netherlands came into the match with everything to play for, but ended with nothing. They needed Nepal to beat Bangladesh to have a chance of reaching the Super Eight stage. That hope faded when Bangladesh beat Nepal by 21 runs.
“We’ll sit down and reflect after the tournament, when we get back to the Netherlands and see which areas we’ve got to be better at to progress in these sort of tournaments,” Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said.
Sri Lanka lost their first two matches but ended on a high note on Sunday. They made an imposing 201-6 batting first, led by Charith Asalanka who made 46 from 21 balls and Kusal Mendis who scored 46 from 29.
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