Taskin Ahmed took 4-28, while Liton Das smashed a 26-ball fifty as Bangladesh beat the Netherlands by eight wickets in the first of the three-match T20I series at the Sylhet International Stadium on Saturday.听
Bangladesh restricted the visitors to 138-8 stipulated overs before chasing it down with 39 balls to spare.听
Liton remained unbeaten on 54 off 29 with six fours and two sixes, while Saif Hassan sparked his comeback with an unbeaten 36 off 19. Saif hit one four and three sixes; the last of those sixes sealed Bangladesh鈥檚 victory.听
Parvez Hossain hit two fours and a six in the first three deliveries of the innings off Aryan Dutt to set the tone for the hosts.听
However, after Parvez was clean bowled by Aryan in the third over, Tanzid Hasan and Liton were cautious before the latter hit consecutive fours off Aryan in the final two deliveries of the fifth over.听
Captain Liton was in full rhythm as Bangladesh reached 56-1 after the powerplay. His partnership with Tanzid was 66 off 39 balls. That was broken when Tanzid was caught at long-on off a full toss by Tim Pringle after making 29 off 24.听
But Liton and Saif were unfazed as they added 46 runs off 26 balls to cruise to the target.听
After being put into bat first, Max O鈥橠owd struck three boundaries in the second over off Shoriful Islam, followed by a six off Mahedi Hasan in the next over to compensate for a tight first over by the latter.听
However, Taskin drew the first blood when O鈥橠owd was caught at cover after making 23 off 15.听
O鈥橠owd鈥檚 wicket halted the progress as the last three overs of the powerplay yielded just nine runs for the visitors. Taskin struck again after the powerplay to end Vikramjit Singh鈥檚 miserable stay of 4 runs off 11 balls.
Captain Scott Edwards and Teja Nidamanuru tried to rebuild in their partnership of 28 runs off 15 balls for the third wicket.听
But Saif, playing his first match in almost two years, proved too much to handle for both of them as they went back in the space of three deliveries. Edwards made 12, while Nidamanuru scored 26 off 26.听
Taskin struck twice in his final two overs to see the backs of Kyle Klein and Noah Croes before Mustafizur Rahman had Shariz Ahmed.听
Netherlands batters got the starts but couldn鈥檛 manage to go big, as no substantial partnerships were made.听
All eight batters except one were caught while trying to play big shots. Seven batters reached double figures, but none could cross even the 30-run mark.听
The second game of the series will be held at the same venue on September 1.
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