Scotland stun Tigers

The majority of the crowd supporting Bangladesh at the Al Amerat Cricket Stadium in Muscat yesterday were stunned as Bangladesh made a disastrous start to their ICC World T20 Round 1 campaign, losing against Scotland by six runs.

Needing 24 runs off the last over, Mahedi Hasan gave the Bangladesh fans some sort of hope by smashing a boundary and a six off the first four balls against pacer Safyan Sharif as the equation went down to twelve off the last two deliveries.

But it was always going to be a tough ask for Mahedi, who fetched a boundary off the fifth ball, setting the Scotland players in celebration as Bangladesh needed eight runs off the final delivery. The all-rounder could only manage as single as Scotland kept their hundred percent record against Bangladesh in the shortest format of the game after having beaten the Tigers by 34 runs back in 2012.

With the defeat in the first game, the equation appears to be a tight one for Bangladesh, who will need to win both their matches against Oman and Papua New Guinea to qualify for the Super 12.

With Naim Sheikh, who played the last 16 T20Is for Bangladesh this year, surprisingly not included in the eleven, Bangladesh made a disastrous start to their chase as Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar failed to make an impact.

Both Soumya and Liton gifted their wickets with straight-forward catches as Bangladesh slumped to 18 for two inside first four overs. However Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim steadied the ship and added 47 runs for the third wicket but both seemed to struggle during their stay.

Shakib was the first to depart when he handed a simple catch at deep mid-wicket off a long hop from leg-spinner Chris Greaves after scoring 20 off 28 deliveries. Mushfiqur looked to open up a bit after striking two sixes but he, too, perished in the next over from Greaves while trying to scoop one, losing his stumps in the process after scoring innings-high 38.

With the required run rate starting to climb, the game was going away from the Tigers, who needed 61 runs off the last six overs.

Bangladesh desperately needed some lusty blows but pacer Brad Wheal removed Afif for 18 while Nurul Hasan departed for two. Hope was entirely on Mahmudullah, but when the skipper was caught at long on after scoring 23, it was all but over for Bangladesh.

Earlier, Bangladesh did a decent job with the ball, courtesy of Mahedi's three wickets and two from Shakib, who became the highest wicket taker in T20Is with 108 scalps surpassing Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman picked up a couple of wickets.

Greaves, who picked up the player-of-the-match award, was instrumental with the bat, scoring 45 off 28 balls, his innings featuring two sixes and four fours as Scotland added 53 runs in the last five overs.