MATCH REPORT
Follow UsGroup B still remains open as Bangladesh defeated a spirited Oman team by 26 runs at Al Amerat. Bangladesh stay alive in the competition and will have to beat Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the next game to have a chance of making it through and hope Oman lose to Scotland. However, if both Oman and Bangladesh win their next games, it will come down to the net run-rates.
Chasing 154 to win, Oman got off to a bright start finishing with 47 for 2 at the end of the powerplay and looked on course to win the game. In fact, at the end of Bangladesh’s innings, Criclytics had given Oman a 74% chance of winning the game.
Things could have been very different had Bangladesh held on to their catches, but Mustafizur Rahman and skipper Mahmudullah put down a couple of chances between them to let the co-hosts off the hook.
Mustafizur started off with a 10-ball over, which included five wides, but once he gathered some composure, he was able to get back to his best and finished with figures of 4 for 36 in the end. The Oman batsmen used Mustafizur and Taskin Ahmed’s pace extremely well, smashing him over the fence quite easily on more than one occasion. Once they figured out that taking the pace off the ball was going to be key, they fared much better
Once Jatinder Singh was dismissed by Shakib Al Hasan for 40 off 33, Bangladesh breathed a sigh of relief. The spinner put all his experience into play as he returned to get the wickets of wicketkeeper Naseem Khushi and Ayaan off back-to-back deliveries to dent any hopes Oman might have had, capping off an excellent day for the all-rounder.
Also, the middle overs yielded just 53 runs for Oman, which was a huge blow for Oman after the bright start they had made.
With 84 needed off the final 10 overs with eight wickets in hand and two set batsmen at the crease, Oman should have ideally made a match of this, but once the partnership between Zeeshan Maqsood and Jatinder was broken, Oman managed just 46 more runs off 57 deliveries losing seven wickets along the way.
Earlier, Bangladesh too did not make the best of starts after winning the toss and batting first.
Bangladesh registered yet another poor powerplay, finishing at 29 for 2 - a slight improvement from where they were against Scotland at this stage (25 for 2), giving Bilal Khan and Fayyaz Butt a wicket apiece.
With Shakib struggling to get going, Mohammad Naim, who was roped into the XI in place of Soumya Sarkar was looking in good touch, but had a stroke of luck, when Jatinder Singh dropped a running catch at the point fence. That was not the first time a catch was dropped by Oman and certainly was not the last.
With Shakib and Naim getting settling in, it became more and more difficult for Oman to get a breakthrough and the dropped catches certainly did not help. From overs nine to 13, Bangladesh found the fence at least once and it looked like Bangladesh would cruise to about 170. But a brilliant direct hit at the non-striker’s end by Aqib Ilyas brought an end to Shakib’s (42) knock and ended a magnificent 80-run stand.
From 101 for 2, Bangladesh managed to get to 153, adding just 42 more runs for the loss of eight wickets in the last 40 balls of the innings.
Once Shakib was dismissed, Zeeshan and Khaleemullah teamed up to remove Nurul Hasan (3), Afif Hossain (1) and Mohammad Naim (64). Naim cashed in on a few lives gifted to him by Oman fielders and reached his third T20I fifty.
However, the experienced duo of Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim who batted lower than usual managed just 23 off 14. Bilal Khan (3 for 18) and Fayyaz Butt (3 for 30), who clocked more than 140 KMPH on more than one occasion today were the pick of the bowlers for Oman.
The batsmen found it tough to put them away with Bilal and Fayyaz bowling 25 dot balls between them and conceded just five boundaries combined.
The hosts picked up six wickets in the last five overs, which helped them pull things back after Shakib and Naim scored at over nine an over in the middle overs.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 153 in 20 overs (Mohammad Naim 64, Shakib Al Hasan 42; Bilal Khan 3 for 18) beat Oman 127 for 9 in 20 overs (Jatinder Singh 40, Kashyap Prajapati 21; Mustafizur Rahman 4 for 36) by 27 runs
Player of the match: Shakib Al Hasan