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Bangladesh advanced to the Super Eight stage with a slightly tight victory over Nepal thanks to a blistering opening spell from Tanzim Hasan Sakib. Nepal’s bowling display in Kingstown put a Full Member side on tenterhooks for the second straight game, but Bangladesh’s quick bowlers destroyed their batting order.
Tanzid Hasan top-edged a short ball for a return catch to the fast bowler, setting up Sompal Kami to strike first for Nepal, who elected to bowl. In the subsequent over, Airee exploited the captain of Bangladesh’s defence, dismissing Shanto as the following victim.
Having been given a third consecutive over, Kami got Litton to top-edge a pull off a short ball that wicketkeeper Aasif Sheikh came down to catch. Bangladesh’s top order, who have only scored 122 runs in their four group stage games, had a bad run of form.
Towhid Hridoy, Bangladesh’s best batter in the competition, hit two fours but top-edged an attempted slog sweep off Paudel to leave Bangladesh stuttering at 31 for 4 at the end of the powerplay.
Together with Shakib, Mahmudullah attempted to rally for Bangladesh by hitting two clean boundaries off Sandeep Lamichhane. However, he was given out for an unsubstantiated run in the ninth over, when the non-striker was bowled out.
Shakib and Jaker Ali attempted to fortify themselves, but Paudel made another breakthrough by getting rid of Shakib. Lamichhane then bowled Tanzim and Jake with incorrect balls, threatening to bowl Bangladesh out before 100 runs.
However, Bangladesh added 31 runs for the final two wickets, thanks to Taskin and Rishad Hossain, to reach 106.
When Tanzim hit thrice in his second over, which was the third of the innings, Nepal was in serious difficulty from the start. Anil Sah toe-ended his attempt to mid-off after Kushal Bhurtel missed a low full ball that swung away late to cut the off stump.
After thereafter, Mustafizur managed to catch Aasif Sheikh hiding, capping off a brilliant power play for Bangladesh.
For Nepal, Malla and Airee combined, but in the 16th over, Malla took a different approach and slog-swept Mahmudullah for the team’s first six runs of the innings. After one ball, he gave him a wonderful leg-side shove for a four, extending their fifty-run partnership. To defeat the final four, they needed to win by thirty.
Mustafizur, who was bowling two of those four overs, broke the growing stand with a back-of-length cutter that was sailed over mid-off. It was a good move by Najmul Hossain Shanto to buckle under it, racing back and hanging on to a precarious opportunity. There was just a single run off the over.
Before the match, Shakib Al Hasan had not taken a wicket in the tournament. He took the final two wickets to complete a hat-trick for the side. Additionally, Bangladesh won three games in a T20 World Cup for the first time ever.