T20 World Cup 2022, Match 17: Bangladesh vs Netherlands - Talking points and Who Said What

Bangladesh overcame the Netherlands in their opening ICC  T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 encounter at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart by nine runs. However, the Asian team must give all credits to their bowlers who made this victory possible. Moreover, the Dutch team was also responsible for a horrendous running between the wickets on a couple of occasions.

Bangladesh struggled their way to 144//8 in their 20 overs which was not at all going to be an intimidating total for the Netherlands who have some world-class batters in their arsenal. It was courtesy of some vital knocks from opener Najmul Hossain Shanto who scored 25 runs off 20 balls and handy contributions from Afif Hossain (38) and Mosaddek Hossain (20*).

In reply, the star Dutch batter Vikramjit Singh was dismissed for a golden duck and the other batters failed to make any impact on the scoreboard being sent back to the dugout cheaply. Middle-order batter Colin Ackermann was the lone-warrior for the Netherlands scoring a valiant 62 runs off 48 balls. A 14-ball 24 from lower-order batter Paul van Meekeren towards the end meant that the Dutch did not lose by a bigger margin.

The Dutch bowlers fail to apply pressure on Bangladesh batters despite having them on the mat

Bangladesh seemed to be down and out at 76/5 after 11 overs and it was a perfect opportunity for the Dutch bowlers to wrap up the innings at the earliest. However, that was not to be as a crucial 44-run stand between Afif Hossain and Nurul Hasan for the sixth wicket nullified all of the advantage that the Netherlands had enjoyed due to which they had to chase a challenging target despite being in a position of strength.

Taskin Ahmed's four-wicket haul sinks the Netherlands

What should have been an ideal chase for the Netherlands turned out to be a total disaster right from the word 'go'. While those two run outs were obviously one of the turning points of their innings, it was senior pacer Taskin Ahmed's four-wicket haul which ended up doing some irreparable damage to the Dutch team.

Taskin accounted for the likes of Vikramjit Singh, Bas de Leede, the in-form Colin Ackermann, and Shariz Ahmad to finish with outstanding figures of 4/25 from his four overs at an economy of 6.25. He bagged the Player of the Match award for his match-winning performance. 

Winning skipper, Shakib Al Hasan said:

It was very important to get a win. I have played all the editions of (T20 World Cup) but we haven't won and that was on the back of my mind. We kept losing wickets at regular intervals and that wasn't helping us. We knew that 155 would have been a great total, we were 10 runs short. The fast bowlers bowled well. We understand the importance of fast bowling, we have found some very good bowlers. Taskin has been a good bowler for us, he has the experience and pace. Most of the fielders in our team are agile and quick, in the field we can save 5-10 runs, and that could be the big difference.

Losing skipper, Scott Edwards said:

Our bowlers were quite amazing, and they (Bangladesh) were around 10-15 runs short. But our run-outs (Max ODowd and Tom Cooper) were poor. Colin Ackermann and Paul van Meekeren helped us to get closer to the total. Hopefully we can bring in a better performance with the bat, looking forward to the next challenge (against India).

Player of the Match, Taskin Ahmed said:

It's a good win for us, we needed it. As a team we played really well and I am happy to contribute in today's win. I tried to stick to the basics. I tried to bowl the Test match lengths and the ball shaped away too. I just tried to give my best. I can move the ball both ways, that's the main focus and something I have worked on for the World Cup.