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Shakib, Rishad and Mustafizur take Bangladesh one step closer to Super Eight
Bangladesh made a big stride towards securing a Super Eights berth at the T20 World Cup 2024 with a confident 25-run win over Netherlands in the first international fixture in Kingstown in close to a decade.
It was a welcome return to form for Shakib Al Hassan who scored his first fifty in 20 T20I innings to shepherd Bangladesh to 159 for 5. Netherlands made a good fist of the chase, moving to 111 for 3 in the 15th over. But legspinner Rishard Hossain struck three times in four balls spread across two overs to change the course of the game.
With Shakib and Mustafizur Rahman tightening the screws alongside Rishad, Netherlands fell in a heap, losing 4 for 6 in the space of 16 balls. They still had an outside chance with 36 needed off the last two overs, but Mustafizur Rahman’s cutters proved too much to handle in the 19th over. He kept slanting the ball across, and the batters kept swishing and missing. He conceded just three runs in that over, having given away just one in the 17th, and Netherlands were eventually restricted to 134 for 8.
With the Bangladesh top order studded with left-handers, Netherlands brought Aryan Dutt in for his first game of the tournament and he immediately repaid their faith. Introduced in the second over, he removed the Bangladesh captain with his second ball. It was an innocuous length ball outside off, which Najmul Hossain Shanto reverse-swept straight to first slip.
Dutt struck again in his next over, with a lot of help from Sybrand Engelbrecht. Litton Das eyed a slog-sweep only to get a top-edge well in front of square. But Engelbrecht, stationed behind square, sprinted to his left , put out a full-length dive and picked up a screamer inches off the turf.
Despite the early losses, Bangladesh continued to score at a fair clip. Tanzid Hasan struck Vivian Kingma for two fours and a six in the third over before Shakib picked another four off Paul van Meekeren in the fifth. Shakib then laid into Logan van Beek in the sixth over, smashing him for four fours to take Bangladesh to 54 for 2, comfortably their highest powerplay score of the tournament.
Netherlands weren’t backing down, though. Captain Scott Edwards rung in the changes and the bowlers made sure to stick to their lengths. According to ESPNcricinfo’s logs, Netherlands only veered into the full lengths four times in 10 overs from the seventh to the 16th, and Bangladesh’s scoring rate dropped. The pressure told on Tanzid, who mistimed a pull to deep backward square leg in the ninth over, while Towhid Hridoy had his leg stump flattened by Tim Pringle in the 13th. Bangladesh managed only 58 runs in the middle ten overs with five fours and a six, and lost two wickets.
The last time Shakib scored a fifty in T20Is was in October 2022 against Pakistan. At the T20 World Cup, he hadn’t breached the half-century mark since 2016. But on this crucial day, Bangladesh’s stalwart stood tall.
He scored his first seven runs at a run-a-ball, and picked up his once he got the hang of the surface. And even when the runs dried up in the middle phase, he kept rotating strike without panicking. He reached his fifty off 38 balls and hit de Leede for back-to-back fours in the final over to finish unbeaten on 64 off 46 balls, his innings studded with nine fours.
There were important contributions from Mahmudullah (25 off 21) and Jaker Ali (14* off seven) as Bangladesh collected 47 runs off the last four overs.
With 349 runs in nine innings, Michael Levitt came into this tournament as Netherlands’ highest run-scorer in T20Is since the start of 2024. However, he’s had a dismal start to his T20 World Cup with scores of 1 and 0 against Nepal and South Africa. He seemed to change the tide against Bangladesh when he drove Mustafizur through the covers in the first over. Then, when he smashed Taskin Ahmed over the roof at deep midwicket, it seemed his campaign was back on track.
But Levitt’s joy was short-lived. In the fifth over, he top-edged a cut off Taskin to Hridoy at point. In the next over, Max O’Dowd smashed a length ball straight back to Tanzim Hasan, and Netherlands ended the powerplay at 36 for 2.
Vikramjit Singh hit Shakib for back-to-back sixes in the seventh over and slog-swept Rishad over deep midwicket in the ninth. His sprightly 16-ball knock was cut short when he was stumped, walking past a tossed-up delivery from Mahmudullah. But at 69 for 3 in the tenth over, Netherlands were still in with a chance.
Netherlands seemed to be giving Bangladesh a proper fight when Engelbrecht and Edwards were at the crease. The duo ran superbly and got the boundaries at regular intervals during a 31-ball stand of 42 for the fourth wicket.
When Rishad was brought on to bowl the 15th over, Netherlands required 56 off 36. The legspinner’s first two overs had gone for 19 and he knew this over could decide the match. It did, in Bangladesh’s favour.
With his fourth ball, he got Engelbrecht to top-edge a legbreak straight up, with Tanzim taking the catch at point. Two balls later, he had de Leede stumped with a ball that spun sharply past his outside edge. Mustafizur then got into the act by taking out Edwards, and when Rishad sent back Logan van Beek at the start of the 18th over, the game was as good as done.
Dutt struck a six off Rishad later in that over, but he and Pringle had no answers to Mustafizur’s cutters in the 19th. Eventually, Netherlands fell well short of their target. The result does not knock them out of contention, nor does it give Bangladesh a sure-shot place in the Super Eight. It has, however, knocked Sri Lanka out, and given Bangladesh an excellent chance of advancing from Group D.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 159 for 5 in 20 overs (Shakib Al Hasan 64*, Tanzid Hasan 35, Mahmudullah 25; Paul Van Meekeren 2-15, Aryan Dutt 2-17, Tim Pringle 1-26) beat Netherlands 134 for 8 in 20 overs (Sybrand Engelbrecht 33, Vikramjit Singh 26, Scott Edwards 25; Rishad Hossain 3-33, Taskin Ahmed 2-30, Mustafizur Rahman 1-12, Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-23, Mahmudullah 1-06) by 25 runs
[Cricinfo]
By the time New Zealand walk out under the Khettarama lights on Wednesday, it will have been eight days since their last competitive fixture, but in the face of their disastrous outing with the bat against England, it’s Sri Lanka that might be feeling rather undercooked, and are in danger of being eliminated from a World Cup they are co-hosting.
Make no qualms about it, Sri Lanka enter this contest seeking a massive course correction. Despite a strong start to the tournament with the bat, including a dominant chase over Australia and a dismantling of Oman, their monumental failure in their opening Super Eight fixture has once more disturbed the ghosts of collapses past.
Clarity will be the key word coming into this game, with Sri Lanka’s batters caught in several minds as to how to approach a tacky surface last time out. Some, like Kusal and Kamindu Mendis, were dismissed trying to find singles – something batting coach Vikram Rathour said might not have been optimal on a sticky surface, where even such “safe” stroke play can elicit errors.
Others failed to execute while trying to show intent, instead erring on execution and timing, while those like Kamil Mishara hung around doing not much at all, before making the wrong choice nevertheless in the end.
The game will have served up more questions than answers, and New Zealand will no doubt be itching to press on those pressure points.
New Zealand of course are coming into this game as the in-form batting unit this tournament, having played all their games on the flat, batter-friendly surfaces in Chennai and Ahmedabad. In Sri Lanka, though, they will need to come out with a more measured approach, particularly against a Sri Lankan attack that will no doubt look to exploit the spin-friendly home conditions.
New Zealand also enter with the better head-to-head record, with a 16-9 win-loss record against Sri Lanka; even on Sri Lankan soil it’s 5-3 in favour of the visitors. Recent history is not much different, with two Sri Lankan wins bookending a trio of defeats.
But all that means little in the context of a major tournament, particularly in a game which is as close to a must-win as possible for both sides. For Sri Lanka a defeat means a knockout; New Zealand, meanwhile, have slightly more wiggle room – particularly if England defeat Pakistan on Monday night – though they will then need other results to go their way.
In the spotlight
Of the spinners playing in this tournament, only Adam Zampa and Adil Rashid have a better record against Sri Lanka in men’s T20Is than Mitchell Santner. Across his 11 games against them, he has gone wicketless just twice, grabbing 14 wickets at an economy rate of 6.38 – well below his career economy of 7.24. This however will be Santner’s first time playing at Sri Lanka’s most spin-friendly limited overs venue, and he will be backing himself to boost those numbers.
Dunith Wellalage has seven wickets across this tournament, only behind Maheesh Theekshana (8) for Sri Lanka. Against England he was asked to bowl in the powerplay and came through with figures of 16 for 1 in that period, before finishing up with innings best figures of 3 for 26. With the action moving to the Khettarama, conditions should suit him even more. Sri Lanka will also be relying on him with the bat as well, with him twice being promoted up the order to no.5 already.
Team news
Sri Lanka will have been distraught with their batting performance against England, but it’s unlikely they will make any drastic changes. Kamil Mishara, who came in for Kusal Perera last time out, is likely to get another outing.
Sri Lanka XI (probable): Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis, Pavan Rathnayake, Dasun Shanaka, Kamindu Mendis, Dunith Wellalage, Dushan Hemantha, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka
New Zealand have a fully fit 15 thanks to their extra couple of days off after the Pakistan game washout. Jacob Duffy was set to make way last time out for the returning Lockie Ferguson before rain played spoiler.
New Zealand XI (probable): Tim Seifert (wk), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (capt), Jimmy Neesham, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi Lockie Ferguson
If you want a thing done well, do it yourself. Harry Brook, England’s captain, took matters into his own hands in Pallekele, promoting himself to No. 3 and blazing his maiden T20 international hundred to drag his team past Pakistan and into the semi-finals of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 with a game to spare, almost single-handedly.
Brook started the tournament, his first as captain, with 53 against Nepal but had been dismissed by spin for less than 20 for four innings in a row. His response was to move up two spots from No. 5 in order to bat in the powerplay, and he found himself walking out to face the second ball after Shaheen Shah Afridi – recalled by Pakistan – struck with the first ball of England’s chase.
Afridi took three wickets in the powerplay to check England’s progress, and Usman Tariq struck twice in the middle overs to reduce them to 58 for 4 and then 103 for 5. But Brook continued to flay Pakistan’s attack to all parts, reaching a 50-ball hundred by launching Afridi over cover for six and then over mid-off for four.
He was cleaned up one ball later by Afridi’s pinpoint yorker, but walked off to a standing ovation with England needing only 10 to win. They made hard work of it, gifting two wickets to Mohammad Nawaz to take the game into the 20th over, but Jofra Archer smeared Salman Mirza through midwicket as England’s dugout breathed a sigh of relief.
England’s win sealed their qualification for the semi-finals with a match to spare, and they will top the group if they can beat New Zealand in Colombo on Friday. They are yet to put a complete performance together and were shoddy in the field against Pakistan, but have now reached the semi-finals for a fifth men’s T20 World Cup in a row.
Pakistan, meanwhile, must beat Sri Lanka in their final group game and rely on other results falling their way. Despite Shahibzada Farhan’s impressive 63, they always look short on runs after they were bogged down by spin in the middle overs, with Liam Dawson’s 3 for 24 the outstanding performance among England’s attack.
Brief scores:
England 166 for 8 in 19.1 overs (Harry Brook 100, Sam Curran 16, Will Jacks 28; Shaheen Shah Afridi 4-30, Mohammad Nawaz 2-26, Usman Tarique 2-31) beat Pakistan 164 for 9 in 20 overs (Shahibzada Farhan 63, Babar Azam 25, Fakhar Zaman 25, Shadab Khan 23; Jofra Archer 2-32, Jamie Overton 2-26, Liam Dawson 3-24, Adil Rashid 1-31) by two wickets
(Cricinfo)
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