Twitter Reactions: Bangladesh claim their first-ever Super 12 win after cruising past the Netherlands

Bangladesh and the Netherlands locked horns in the 17^th match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart. While Bangladesh had secured a place in the Super 12 by virtue of their points, the Netherlands had sailed through the first-round games to secure themselves a spot in the second stage of the tournament. But their excitement did not last long as Bangladesh bagged a nine-run victory to kick-start their tournament.

The Netherlands won the toss and opted to bowl first, making two changes to their side as Roelof van der Merwe had to miss out owing to his injury. Bangladesh openers Najmul Hossain Shanto and Soumya Sarkar started off well and found the gaps for boundaries early on to put the powerplay overs to best use. The Netherlands got the first breakthrough when Van Meekeren dismissed Sarkar towards the end of the powerplay.

And then, it became difficult for them to keep up with the momentum. By the end of the 10^th over, Bangladesh lost three more wickets as the scorecard read 72/4. It was then Afif Hossain’s heroics that helped Bangladesh survive a scare. Mosaddek Hossain’s cameo of an unbeaten 12-ball 20 towards the end eventually led the Bangladesh batters to play for 20 full overs and post a target of 145 runs for the Netherlands to chase.

Netherlands survive a collapse, but fall short of nine runs

Netherlands’ start to the chase was awful. Taskin Ahmed, who opened the attack for Bangladesh struck on the very first ball to dismiss opening batter Vikramjit Singh and followed it with another wicket off the next delivery to send Bas de Leede packing. Just when the batters were digesting the fact that the top order had crumbled, Bangladesh scalped two more wickets as the Netherlands was decreased to 17/4 in four overs.

Colin Ackermann and captain Scott Edwards tried to build a partnership thereon, but they were very slow at scoring runs. Edwards was next to walk back, but Ackermann kept going and notched up the crucial runs. Although he bagged a half-century, he fell short of partners on the other end as Bangladesh kept picking wickets at regular intervals.

Bangladesh bowlers had done really well, with Taskin Ahmed ending his spell with four big wickets under his belt. Even after Ackermann's wicket, the tailenders kept going and the game came down to the final over but the Netherlands batters fell short of just nine runs as the Bangladesh bowlers dished them all out in the final delivery of the ultimate over. As a result, Bangladesh registered their first-ever win in the second round in the history of the Men's T20 World Cup.