Mustafizur Rahman was sublime in the death overs once again, as Bangladesh won by 21 runs defending a low score of just 107 runs in a nail-biting group stage match of the ICC T20 World Cup against Nepal to secure a birth in the Super 8.
The match was even and at one point Nepal was on the course of winning the match. However, the Nepalese batters didn’t have any clue against Mustafizur as he picked 3 crucial wickets for just 7 runs from his four overs, including 21 dot balls.
Shakib Al Hasan also opened his tally in the tournament in the match by picking up 2 wickets in the final two balls of the innings helping the team to curtail the tail-enders.
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Tanzim too good
Tanzim was simply too hot to handle for Nepal's top order, as he generated pace and bounce, taking two wickets in his second over, bowling Kushal Bhurtel with a full toss and then removing Anil Sah for a duck.
Tanzim then had some good fortune when Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel smashed a wide delivery to Rishad Hossain at point.
The only upper order batsman who got himself in was Aasif Sheikh (17 from 14) but he went, caught by Shakib Al Hasan at cover off Mustafizur.
After Tanzim removed Sundeep Jora, Nepal were in a mess at 26-6 but they climbed out of that hole with a 52-run partnership between Dipendra Singh Airee (25) and Kushal Malla (27).
Earlier, Nepal were on top from the outset with seamer Sompal Kami dismissing Tanzid Hasan with the first ball of the innings.
Tanzid inexplicably chose to dance down the track to the first ball and mis-timed his attempted pull shot which produced a simple caught and bowled for Sompal.
Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto then went in the second over, clean bowled by spinner Dipendra Singh Airee.
Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel stuck with the excellent Sompal Kami for a third over in his opening spell and was rewarded when he claimed the crucial wicket of Litton Das.
The track offered plenty of turn for the spinners and Bangladesh struggled to find any sort of momentum, finding themselves and when Sandeep Lamichhane bowled Jaker Ali with a superb googly, Bangladesh were 75-8 in the 16th over.
Rishad Hossain opted to go on the attack and hit a six and four as he made 13 off seven balls but the final pairing of Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed managed to put on 18 and get the total into three figures before Mustafizur was run-out in the final over.