Bangladesh convincingly beat UAE in Asia Cup tie
Mirpur (Bangladesh), Feb 26 (Cricketnmore): A shockingly poor batting effort from United Arab Emirates (UAE) coupled with some disciplined bowling by Bangladesh helped the latter win the Asia Cup tie by 51 runs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here on Friday.
Chasing Bangladesh's total of 133/8, the visitors were skittled out for a mere 82 runs. The only notable contribution with the bat for UAE came from Muhammad Usman (30 runs).
For Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah picked up two wickets each. This was also the first time that Bangladesh had bowled out an opposition in T20 internationals.
UAE were jolted early in the chase as Al-Amin Hossain picked up opener Muhammad Kaleem (0) with just two runs on the board.
Rohan Mustafa and Mohammad Shahzad then knit together a 23-run partnership, but both never looked settled at the crease. Mustafa fell for 18 and a few deliveries later Shahzad (12) followed his partner and from there on, Bangladesh did not have to look back.
At the halfway stage in the innings, UAE were 44/5.
The visitors kept losing wickets at frequent intervals and at one point they were reduced to 55/8. It was only a matter of time before Bangladesh bowled them out and they did so in the 18th over.
Earlier in the evening, the hosts were off to a bit of a flyer as openers Mohammad Mithun and Soumya Sarkar (21) hammered the rival bowlers to every part of the ground.
After a quickfire partnership of 46 runs in 5.2 overs, Sarkar fell while trying to heave one over mid on. The loss of Sarkar's wicket did not deter his partner Mithun from going for his shots as he continued to hammer the bowlers.
But his stay at the crease ended abruptly as quick work from UAE wicketkeeper Swapnil Patil got Mithun (47) run out with the score reading 81/3.
A few balls later, it was veteran batsman Mushfiqur Rahim (4) who edged one to the keeper to follow Mithun into the dugout.
With the overs slipping away, the pressure fell on the Bangladesh batsmen who tried to break the shackles. Shakib Al Hasan (13) and Mahmudullah shared a brief partnership of 29 runs but then Shakib missed a full toss which crashed into his citadel.
Two more wickets fell in quick succession thereafter as Bangladesh looked like they would not even get to 120. But a few big hits towards the end from Mahmudulah who remained unbeaten at 36, took them past the 130-run mark.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 133/8 in 20 overs (Mohammad Mithun 47; Mohammad Naveed 2/12) vs UAE 82 all out in 17.4 overs (Muhammad Usman 30; Mahmudullah 2/5).
Agency.