On the back of Taskin Ahmed's solid performance with the ball, Bangladesh downed the Netherlands by nine runs and started their T20 World Cup campaign with an important win. The right-arm fast bowler bagged four wickets and gave away just 25 runs in his four-over spell. Colin Ackermann (62 runs off 48 balls) kept the Netherlands in the game for a brief period but lack of game awareness from his teammates cost the Dutch side dearly.
Paol van Meekeren led the show with a tidy 2/21 as Netherlands bounced back after the powerplay to restrict Bangladesh to a modest 144/8.
Van Meekeren triggered the collapse dismissing Soumya Sarkar (14; 14b; 2x4) inside the Power Play as Bangladesh went on to lose five wickets for 33 runs.
It was Atif Hossan who held the innings together at one end with a spirited 27-ball 38 but there was hardly any support for him in the middle with the likes of skipper Shakib Al Hasan and Litton Das (9) getting out cheaply.
Afif slammed two boundaries and as many sixes with Mosaddek Hossain (12-ball 20 not out) giving him company to prop up the total.
Making his T20 World Cup debut, 19-year-old leg-spinner Shariz Ahmed had the prized scalp of Shakib when the Bangladesh star skipper miscued a slog sweep to be caught at square boundary. Ahmed returned with impressive figures of 3-0-27-1.
Playing two young spinners was a bold decision by the Dutch skipper Scott Edwards as 20-year-old leftarm spinner Tim Pringle also returned with a tidy 2-0-10-1 to dent Bangladesh's recovery.
Sent in, Bangladesh got off to a solid start with Najmul Hossain Shanto (25) and Soumya Sarkar (14) putting on a 43-run opening wicket partnership in five overs.
Sarkar took on Fead Klaasen who looked wayward as he smashed the Dutch pacer for two boundaries to get them off to a flier.
Left-handed Shanto also played a perfect foil as he cracked back to back fours against Bas de Leede as Bangladesh cruised to 33 for no loss.
But a change of ends to Van Meekeren did the trick for the Dutch as the pacer gave the vital breakthrough of Sarkar that brought on the imminent collapse.
Rain came to Bangladesh's rescue briefly after they slipped to 63/4 in the 10th over.
(With PTI inputs)
