Tamim leads Bangladesh to 8wkt win over Netherlands

By Meg Anderson

THE HAGUE (TheSportsNext) July 26, 2012: A brilliant match-winning half century by opening batsman Tamim Iqbal and a captain’s knock by Mushfiqur Rahim helped Bangladesh to beat Netherlands by eight wickets in their first Twenty20 International match at the Sportpark Westvliet in The Hague on Wednesday.

Bangladesh’s final match of their European tour will be played on July 26, 2012 against Netherlands at the same venue.

Tamim Iqbal produced the match winning knock as he struck five boundaries and two sixes during his 53-ball unbeaten innings of 69 runs. The left-hand batsman was ably supported by his skipper Mushfiqur Rahim who hit four towering sixes to score 37 not out runs from just 24 balls.

Chasing a 145-run target, Bangladesh got off to a promising start with openers Tamim Iqbal (69 not out from 53 – 5 fours, 2 sixes) and Junaid Siddique (25 from 20 – 3 fours, 1 six) took the total to 45 runs when van der Gugten got rid of Junaid in the seventh over.

Shakib Al Hasan (12 from 11 – 2 fours) soon followed Junaid as Bangladesh looked in some sort of trouble at two down for 63 runs in the 10^th over.

However, Tamim Iqbal remained firm at one end while skipper Mushfiqur Rahim gave him an absolute support and confidence at the other end at Bangladesh raced to the target in just 18 overs for the loss of two wickets.

Tamim Iqbal was declared Man of the Match for his unbeaten match-winning innings of 69 runs.

Earlier, a gutsy half century by opening batsman Michael Swart helped Netherlands give a moderate 145-run target to Bangladesh.

After winning the toss, Dutch captain Peter Borren decided to bat first against the spin-thick Bangladesh bowling attack.

While Michael Swart clobbered 57 runs from just 41 balls hitting four boundaries and two sixes but he lacked support from the other end as his fellow opener Wesley Barresi (Duck), Tom Cooper (1 from 3), Eric Szwarczynski (1 from 4), and Peter Borren (12 from 16 – 2 fours) all failed to play a longer innings.

Tom de Grooth (22 from 18 – 2 fours) and Mudassar Bukhari (12 from 15 – 1 four) somewhat resurrected the dwindling ship for the Netherlands and a late cameo by Tim Gruijters (21 not out from 16 – 2 fours) and Pieter Seelaar (9 not out from 5 – 1 six) propelled the home side to a moderate total of 144 runs from their 20 overs.

Mashrafe Mortaza was once again consistent with his medium-pacers as he captured two wickets for just 22 runs from his four overs. Mortaza was ably supported by Shakib Al Hasan (4-0-23-2) and Mahmudullah (3-0-17-1) while Nazmul Hossain (2-0-23-0) and Abdur Razzak (4-0-31-1) proved expensive for Bangladesh.