DHARAMSALA: Tamim Iqbal unbeaten 83 helped Bangladesh beat Netherlands by eight runs in their first group encounter of the World Twenty20 here on Wednesday.
Ireland skipper William Porterfield won the toss and invited Bangladesh to bat first.
Bangladesh suffered from a lack of partnerships but Tamim with his fourth T20 half-century almost single handedly lifted the score to 153 for seven.
It was a disappointing show of batting from a side which sparkled in the recently concluded Asia Cup where the hosts ended runners up after a keenly contested final against India.
Tamim however remained unaffected with the wicket fall as the left-hander smacked six boundaries and three sixes during his 58 ball stay.
Taskin Ahmed bowled a high-quality last over, giving away eight runs when Netherlands required 17 to win, to help Bangladesh start their World T20 campaign with an eight-run win in Dharamsala. The game had swung in nearly every over as neither team could take a hold of the contest.
Mudassar Bukhari and Pieter Seelaar kept Netherlands in the hunt with a 16-run penultimate over, which also included the wicket of Tom Cooper. Bukhari was run-out in the last over, and neither Seelaar nor Logan van Beek could find the boundaries.
Ultimately, Tamim Iqbal’s unbeaten 83, as the rest of the Bangladesh batting line-up struggled, Mashrafe Mortaza’s boundary-less last three overs and Taskin’s accurate last over combined for Bangladesh’s win.
The game was in Netherlands’ grasp when they needed 54 runs in the last five overs with seven wickets in hand. Captain Peter Borren started off the assault with a one-handed sweep through midwicket for four. Subsequently, he was dropped in the same region by Nasir Hossain before the same fielder caught him at the end of the over.
In the next over, Mortaza, who conceded one four in his spell, was unlucky not to have Cooper’s wicket after the ball struck the off stump but the bails didn’t budge. Van der Merwe was removed later in the over though, the thin edge carrying to the Mushfiqur Rahim.
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