T20 World Cup: Bangla Tigers roar back to keep Super 12 hopes alive

Muscat - Bangladesh, who came into the contest against Oman needing a win to stay in the hunt for the Super 12 stage, registered a 26-run victory

Star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan took three wickets and scored 42 with the bat as Bangladesh hammered hosts Oman by 26 runs on Tuesday to win their first match of the Twenty20 World Cup and stay alive in the competition.

Bangladesh came into the contest needing a win to stay in the hunt for the Super 12 stage and were bowled out for 153 after electing to bat first in Muscat.

Mustafizur Rahman, who returned figures of 4-36, and Shakib then shared seven wickets between them to keep down Oman to 127-9 and help Bangladesh bounce back from their opening Group B loss to Scotland.

Oman opener Jatinder Singh smashed 40 off 33 balls before falling to Shakib’s laft-arm spin.

Left-hand opener Mohammad Naim, who smashed 64 off 50 balls, and Shakib set up the victory for Bangladesh with a key second-wicket stand of 80 after the Tigers lost two early wickets.

Oman fast bowlers Bilal Khan and Fayyaz Butt took three wickets each to peg back Bangladesh after the big partnership.

Naim, who replaced Soumya Sarkar for the key match, survived two dropped catches on 18 and 26 to go on and raise his third T20 half-century.

The Oman bowlers kept picking up wickets and could have limited Bangladesh to a far lower score with better catching as Kashyap Prajapati dropped two chances and Jatinder spilled another.

“We will take this win, but I think there are a lot of areas we need to improve,” Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah said.

“I hope everyone is happy. Thanks to the crowd that came in, they expect us to win. Delivering a win for them, for the country is the most important thing. Shakib and Naim batted brilliantly, they had a good partnerships and that took us to 150-plus. But we should have done better with the new ball, bowled a lot of wides. We need to see those areas and correct them. I think our death bowling was going well. In the middle part we brought the game back. But the first six overs — batting and bowling — we need to improve,” he added.

Shakib, who was named the Man of the Match, said: “Obviously, it (loss to Scotland) hurt the whole team because we were not expecting it. It was pretty tough. Obviously, the Scotland low was hurting us. Oman played really good cricket but we held our nerve. Experience played a role. Oman were in the game for 15 overs, so credit to them. They are playing with a lot of heart, I wish them best of luck for their future games. I think this win will settle our nerves. We have another game which we have to win and we have to see what happens in the game between Oman and Scotland.”