An unbeaten fifty from Shakib Al Hasan followed by some brilliant bowling from Rishad Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman took Bangladesh to the cusp of the Super Eight stage as they beat Netherlands by five wickets in St Vincent on Thursday.
This win puts Bangladesh in second place in Group D with four points, meaning a win over Nepal will take them to the next stage of the tournament.
Shakib, who didn鈥檛 have a fifty in his last 19 T20I innings, remained unbeaten on 64 off 46, which propelled Bangladesh to 159-5.
They defended it successfully thanks to 3-33 from Rishad and 1-12 in four overs from Mustafizur Rahman.
Aryan Dutt and Paul van Beek each took two wickets for the Dutch, while Sybrand Engelbrecht top-scored with 33 off 25 balls.
Netherlands, needing 160, made a shaky start, losing openers Michael Levitt and Max O鈥橠owd for 18 and 12, respectively, within the powerplay, which shortened them to 36-2. Taskin Ahmed removed the former, while Tanzim Hasan Sakib picked up the latter.听
The Dutch overcame their early troubles as Engelbrecht and Vikramjit Singh added 37 off 23 balls for the third wicket before the latter fell to Mahmudullah for 26.
Then, Engelbrecht, with his skipper Scott Edwards, stitched the innings, sharing 42 off 31 balls in the next stand, and looked comfortable as they eyed their first win over the Tigers in T20 World Cups.
However, Rishad shattered that dream as he dismissed Engelbrecht in the fourth delivery of the 15th over, and then struck again to dismiss Bas de Leede for a duck as Liton Das came up with a brilliant stumping.
Mustafizur then joined the party to dismiss Edwards, tricking him into giving a catch to Jaker Ali for 25.
The left-handed pacer ended the game with 17 dot balls out of his 24 balls, aiding Bangladesh to restrict Netherlands to 134-8, with Taskin picking up his second wicket on the final delivery of the match.
Earlier, being sent in to bat, the Bangladesh opening stand failed once again as skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto gifted his wicket to Dutt by trying to reverse sweep, which saw him giving a catch to Vikramjit Singh at slip for just one.
Liton then fell to a stunning catch by Engelbrecht at deep square leg for a single to Dutt, leaving the Tigers reeling at 23-2 in 3.1 overs.
However, they bounced back as Shakib and Tanzid Hasan Tamim added 48 runs off 32 balls for the third wicket.
The duo came up with regular boundaries as Shakib smashed Logan van Beek for four fours in the sixth over, resulting in Bangladesh finishing the powerplay on 54-2.
However, Tanzid fell on 35 when he tried to pull van Meekran but only managed to give a catch at deep square leg to de Leede.
Shakib, who underwent severe criticism due to his poor batting form in the months, then led the charge to bring up his thirteenth T20I fifty off 38 balls, hitting seven fours.
He further shared an 18, 41, and 29-run stand with Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, and Jaker Ali, respectively, to pull the Tigers close to the 160-run mark.
Towhid, who scored 40 and 37 in the opening two games, was bowled by Tim Pringle for nine, while Mahmudullah gave a catch for 25 0ff 221 balls, leaving the Tigers at 130-5 in 17.3 overs.
Then, banking on Shakib and Jaker Ali鈥檚 cameo of 14 off seven balls, the Tigers ended on 159-5.听
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