Skipper Mahmudullah’s blistering 28-ball-50 coupled with Shabik Al Hasan’s quickfire 46 off 37 balls steered Bangladesh to an imposing 181/7 against minnows Papua New Guinea in their Group B league game of the T20 World Cup on Thursday.
Mahmudullah hammered three maximums and as many boundaries as his knock helped the ‘Tigers’ to rebuild as 68 runs were added in the last five overs.
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Electing to bat, Bangladesh lost opener Mohammad Naim (0), courtesy a stunning catch by Sese Bau at deep-square leg.
Liton Das (29) and Shakib rallied the innings with their 50-runs second wicket stand. Bangladesh then lost the momentum but thanks to Mahmudullah, who brought them back into contention.
Liton fetched his first maximum, a slog sweep over long-leg in the third over, in which they got nine runs and in the next one Shakib hit the first of his three sixes, over long-on. After the powerplay Bangladesh was 45/1.
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However Papua New Guinea pegged Bangladesh back by removing Das and Mushfiqur Rahim (5), in quick succession, as they slipped to 72/3.
Charles Amini took a blinder at long-on to remove Shakib, who looked in his elements. Bangladesh was reeling at 101/4.
But then it was the Mahmudullah show, who hit the fastest fifty of this edition with some clean strikes.
It was Mohammed Saifuddin (19 not out off 6 balls), who launched into pacer Chad Soper in the 20th over which fetched 20 runs including two sixes and a four which helped the Test nation cross 180-run mark.
Brief Scores: Bangladesh 181/7 (Mahmudullah 50, Shakib Al Hasan 46; Assad Vala 2/26, Kabua Morea) vs PNG.
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