T20 World Cup 2024: Bangladesh vs Nepal, 37th Match – Who Said What?

Bangladesh defeated Nepal by a commanding 21 runs in match number 37, securing a spot in the Super Eights of the current T20 World Cup 2024.

Rohit Kumar Paudel, the captain of Nepal, won the toss and chose to invite the Bangla Tigers to bat first in Monday’s Asian Giants encounter at Kingston’s Arnos Vale Ground.

Nepal’s decision to bowl must have been like hitting the bullseye, because they bowled out the top four in the powerplay. Bangladesh were on the verge of collapse at 57/5 after ten overs, but pivotal cameos from Taskin Ahmed and Rishad Hossain helped them surpass the three-figure threshold, and they were eventually bowled out for 106 three balls into the last over.

Najmul Hossain Shanto had faith in his bowling unit to hold the paltry target, and they delivered on their promise to the captain, limiting the Nepali batsmen to 24/4 at the conclusion of the powerplay. Although it wasn’t to be, Kushal Malla and Dipendra Singh Airee displayed tenacity and drive to lead their team through to the seventh over, when half the side had walked back. All aspirations were dashed by the brilliant last overs of star pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who claimed three wickets in four overs while conceding only seven runs (one of which was a maiden).

Tanzim Sakib was even more remarkable than Mustafizur, with his astounding 4-2-7-4 stats that helped him win Player of the Match. In a game that was absolutely critical to Shanto & Co.’s fate, senior all-arounder Shakib Al Hasan also claimed a couple of wickets towards the finish. When it was all said and done, Bangladesh was declared the winner. They are currently in Super 8 Group 1 with Afghanistan, Australia, and India.

Their first Super 8 matchup is currently scheduled for June 21 against Australia. On June 22 and June 25, respectively, they will square off against India and Afghanistan. After losing three of their four games and having one abandoned due to weather, Nepal ended their campaign without recording a single victory.

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Najmul Shanto, Winning Captain, said:

Very happy the way we played this round, hope we will continue our bowling performance, not our batting. We are not scoring much but we believed that we could defend. The way we’ve bowled, we knew we could take wickets and defend. The fielders have also been good. We have everything, all the fast bowlers have worked really hard. That’s why we’ve played some good cricket. In this format bowling is very important, hope they can continue. Momentum is very important in a tournament like this, hopefully we can carry it through to the next stage.

Rohit Paudel, Losing Captain, said:

As a bowling unit we bowled really well. We could have done better with bat. The top order could have batted tighter. Bangladesh bowled really well with the new ball. Losing 4 wickets in the powerplay put us under a lot of pressure. They were always challenging us, they bowled really well in the powerplay. As a batting unit we need to step up, we need to know where to score runs and how to assess conditions. We’re up to the mark with our bowling and fielding.

This team has great potential, we need to back each and every player, I feel we will do very well in the next World Cup. We have disappointed our fans, we could have won few matches, feel for them. We will try to make them happy in the coming years.

Tanzim Sakib, Player of the Match, said:

We just wanted to keep things simple. Not panic and bowl in good areas. We were very confident of defending this total. This bowling attack is beautiful. Everyone bowled well. Mustafizur bowled a wicket maiden under pressure at the death. I just wanted to execute my plans and that’s what I was focused on. We’re really excited to play in the Super Eights, we are very confident as well.