Tamim Iqbal crushes Oman as Bangladesh advance to the Super 10 stage

It was a winner takes all game between Bangladesh and Oman today at Dharamsala. Oman were required to pull off yet another stunner today if they wished to play against the heavyweight of the World Cricket in the main draw. The only team in their way was the rapidly rising Bangladesh team.  Unfortunately, the lower ranked team failed to put up a fight and lost the match by 54 runs by D/L method.

Oman captain decided to bowl in the knockout game keeping with the threat of the rains looming large over the match. Tamim Iqbal looked in blazing touch and became the first Bangladeshi to score a T20 century. Tamin opened the innings and remained unbeaten till the end, facing 63 deliveries en route to his 103 runs knock laced with 10 fours and 5 sixes.

The sluggish looking Soumya Sarkar (12 from 22 balls) was the first wicket to fall of the day. Sabbir Rahman then came together with Tamim and built a 97 run stand to take Bangladesh to a highly formidable position I the match before Rahman (44 from 26 balls) departed in the 16 over. The experienced Shakib al Hasan then played some crunchy big hits to take Bangladesh to 180/2 after 20 overs.

The Omani team did not have a great start to the chase, losing their opener Zeeshan Maqsood off the 2nd ball of the 1st over. Couple of overs later, Khawar Ali also departed getting caught at Mashrafe Mortaza.  The rain interrupted just after the end of the power play when the Bangladeshis were just tightening their hold over the match.

The play, however, resumed soon and the revised target was 152 from 16 overs and regrettably Oman were behind the D/L par score. The hopes of qualifying suffered another setback after skipper Mortaza snapped a wicket just after the resumption of the play. Shakib al Hasan also took one in the following over and Oman had begun to falter completely. It again began drizzling during the Shakib al Hasan over but it could not stall the game for long as the play continued shortly. The revised target was now 120 from 12 overs which meant that Oman now needed to score 75 runs from the remaining 23 balls.

Shakib continued his over and took another wicket off the last ball. There was no resistance from the Omani players as kept losing wickets and ended at 65/9 after the end of the decided 12 overs of play.

Brief Scores:

Bangladesh: 180/2 in 20 overs (Tamim Iqbal 103; Khawar Ali 1/24)

Oman: 65/9 in 12 overs (Jatinder Singh 25; Shakib Al Hasan 4/15)

Man of the Match: Tamim Iqbal