Bangladesh makes it to WC T20 Super 10

Tamim Iqbal scored his maiden and first T20 century for Bangladesh and in the process snatching the game away from Oman in the Group ‘A’ preliminary round match of the ICC World T20 Tournament at the HPCA ground here on Sunday.

Bangladesh won the rain-interrupted match by 54 runs (D/L method) with Oman finishing at 65 for 9 in 12 overs chasing 181 for win. More than Bangladesh’s bowling brilliance, Oman were done in by their soft dismissals.

Earlier, Oman skipper Sultan Ahmed won the toss and opted to field.

May be the rain and a shortened game was in his mind, but unfortunately the weather stayed dry throughout Bangladesh innings and came back when Oman started their chase.

If Tamim’s innings (103 not out, 5 sixes, 10 fours, 68 balls) was an excellent exhibition of batting, once again single-handedly taking Bangladesh to an imposing 180 for two, Shabir Rahman too had his share of runs scoring 44 off 44 balls with one six and five fours.

Shakib Al Hasan remained with Tamim till end making an unbeaten 17.

Oman made a disastrous start losing Zeeshan Maqsood (0), Khawar Ali (8), Adnan Illyas (13) and Aamir Kaleem (0) early, the daunting task was way beyond their reach.

With each rain interruptions the target became that much harder for the amateurs of Oman, who were playing against an ICC full-member team for the first time.

The D/L method kept on revising the target at each interruptions and the other Oman batsmen kept cracking under pressure. They were also up against quality Bangladesh bowlers.

After Jatinder Singh (25) departed the batsmen who followed skied the ball attempting to send it beyond ropes.

It was a procession thereafter, but this was another learning curve for the players of Oman. However, no pride is lost for Oman as this tournament definitely has been historical for them.

Earlier, continuing from where he left off against Ireland, Tamim was simply superb, though starting off slowly. He was severe on every Oman bowler but for Bilal Khan, who was the pick conceding only 16 runs in his four overs.

Tamim acknowledged that Oman bowled well initially.

“They were good at the start and scoring was difficult, but once I got into the groove and felt the ball in the middle,” said the Bangladesh opener, who smashed five sixes in addition to the 10 fours in his unbeaten 103.

Bangladesh was slow to start with Sultan opting for off-spinner Amir Ali along with Bilal Khan. The duo did trouble the openers, especially Soumya Sarkar,who struggled to put bat to ball.

Tamim on the other hand was content to stay put, which rewarded him later when Sultan started to try out his other bowlers.

Though Ajay Lalcheta, who holds the record of bowling a maiden in the first over of a T20 match, had the batsmen in leash.But after claiming Sarkar’s wicket he too was smashed by Tamim and Shabir.

Khawar Ali was the only other Oman bowler to pick a wicket.