World T20 Day Two Review

By Mikey Godsmark

The 2016 World T20 is well underway as Oman stun Ireland and Bangladesh scrape past the Netherlands, I review the action.

Bangladesh beat the Netherlands by 8 runs

A fascinating contest from Dharamsala saw Bangladesh narrowly sneaking past a Netherlands side that have every right to feel as if they might have won the game. With the bat Tamim Iqbal hit the highest score of the World T20 so far scoring 83 off 58 balls in an innings that showed a lot of what the rest of the Bangladesh side lacked. No other batter managed to pass 15 as Shakib Al Hasan’s poor form with the bat continued as he fell for just 5. Credit must go to the Netherlands’ bowlers who made the most of the surface; Timm van der Gugten was the pick of the bowlers and picking up 3 for 21 off his spell. However in the end, Iqbal’s innings was good enough on its own to guide Bangladesh to a score of 153 for the Dutch to chase down.

The Netherlands’ innings was almost the polar opposite of Bangladesh’s. About half of the side got going but nobody was able to go on and really hit a score that would have won the Dutch the match. Two players got 30 and one 29 and, perhaps most concerning for Peter Borren was the fact that his team only hit one six compared to the six that the opposition were able to get to clear the rope. The six in question was hit by Mudassar Bukhari who hit 14 of just 5 balls at the end of the innings which gave the Netherlands real hope after his first two balls went for boundaries. However, the final over, off which the Netherlands required 16 was well bowled by Taskin Ahmed and went for just 6. In the end Bangladesh were just too good in the bowling department and they will hope that that can continue throughout the tournament.

Oman beat Ireland by 2 wickets

If there was an advert for the merits of associates playing at world tournaments opposed more pointless bilateral series, Ireland v Oman was just that. From now on the World T20 will be played every four years instead of every two years which will give time to….. actually I don’t know why the ICC are doing it, like most of their decisions. However, let’s make the most of it while it lasts and enjoy the next four days because there’s some real quality out there; it just needs to be given a chance.

Ireland won the toss and elected to bat first. Every single player scored more than 10 but, as is sol often the case in T20 cricket nobody could really get going. Porterfield and Stirling were going well at the top before Zeeshan Maqsood took a stunning catch off the bowling of Kaleem and from there Oman had the belief that they could compete against the best in associate cricket and a side that frequently beats FMs. Ansari took three wickets with his Malinga-like action and Oman bowled well all round to restrict Ireland to a fairly modest total of 154. However nobody expected what came next.

Again in this tournament, from Oman we saw two openers talking the attack to the bowlers in the powerplay, and then both of them fell in the 30s, bowled by Kevin O’Brien. Ireland started to assert their class and all of a sudden runs started to dry up, wickets fell and the required run rate started to rise. When Aamer Ali came to the crease this all changed. He hit his fourth ball form six and didn’t look back from there, scoring 32 off 17 balls before being incorrectly given out caught behind in the final over.

That final over in question was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. Requiring 14 of the last over Max Sorensen bowled his first ball as a head high full toss which was dispatched to the fine leg boundary and resulted in a free hit. From this free hit Sorensen lit up the lights on the stumps and Oman ran a bye. Another full toss followed which was sliced to the third man boundary and just about legitimate. With four required from four a single was scampered and then disaster struck for Oman with Ali given out caught behind despite replays showing that it was his bat on the ground that had made the noise. Ansari was facing needing 3 from two and couldn’t believe his luck when another waist high full toss appeared which he slashed at desperately but then nutmeged the keeper for four byes. Oman were ecstatic, and Ireland in despair. I just hope that you were watching this instead of South Africa v Australia.