Timm van der Gugten and Michael Swart, Netherland's two Australian imports, turned in a superb all-round show to clinch a last-ball thriller against Bangladesh to avenge their loss from yesterday. The result ensured Bangladesh couldn't take their chance to climb back on the T20I rankings

Bangladesh vs Netherland 2nd T20

Cricket scorecard

Bangladesh suffers second upset against an Associate nation

On a hot, markedly humid day Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bat. Both skippers agreed that the pitch was a "bat-first" and Bangladesh took heart from their performance yesterday when Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim bookended a fine chase. The drama unfolded quite differently today as Tim Gruijters struck in the very first over, luring Junaid Siddique to a careless loft to mid-on. The very next over saw Michael Swart dart one in through the defences of Shakib Al Hasan, not unlike Shakib's own straighter'uns. Swart wasn't done; the first ball of his next over had Mushfiq attempt a big hit, and offer a dolly at the long on boundary. After four overs, the score was a surreal 8/3 courtesy some reckless stuff from the top-order!

Mahmudullah showed that the pitch or the bowler held little demons in a breezy cameo to set Bangladesh back on track. First he took apart the wrecker-in-chief Swart with a drive to mid-on, whiplash sweep and a classy cover drive off consecutive deliviers, then he doled out some treatment to Tom Cooper, one of the more experienced Dutch bowlers. Tamim at the other end produced the shot of the day, with a delicious late-cut which almost took the ball out of the 'keepers glove. Just as Mahmudullah was beginning to assert himself, he holed out trying a boundary too many. His 29 ball 41 contained six hits to the fence. Zia-ur Rahman did much the same, hitting the first six of the innings over cow-corner which scattered the scorers. All the while Tamim calmly accumulated to anchor the innings with another fifty.

That's when the young Timm van der Gugten whirred into action. The former New South Wales U-17 and U-19 fast-medium bowler zipped in, and had Rahman top edge one, Borren made nearly 40 yards of ground to snaffle that. His next over, he foxed Tamim with a slower one and accounted for Jahurul to end Bangladesh's fight. Mudassar Bukhari mopped up the tail as Bangladesh limped to 128.

In reply, Netherlands began cautiously. Abdur Razzak's first two overs cost only 2 runs as the Dutchmen were only a run ahead at the 4-over mark. Crucially though, they had the wickets intact. Razzak drew first blood in the next over, bowling Barresi and Shakib followed up with the big wicket of Cooper. However Michael Swart, used to pace and bounce of WACA, treated Bangladesh's pacers with disdain before repeating the dose against spinners Shakib and Mahmudullah as well. His clean hitting innings anchored the chase even as wickets fell at the other end.

When Swart was stumped off Mahmudullah, Netherlands were left needing 16 off two overs. Young Gugten then scrambled a couple of twos before a nerveless cross-batted slog off Abdur Razzak's fourth ball in the final over made it 2 needed off two. Razzak took ages to set his field, and the psychological ploy worked as a straighter one trapped Gugten plumb in front. Ahsan Jamil cut the last ball behind point fence to seal a thriller for the Dutch.

Scorecard: Netherlands 131/9 ( Swart - 61, Razzak - 2/23) beat Bangladesh 128 ( Tamim - 50, Timm van der Gugten - 3/18) by 1 wicket (with 0 balls remaining)

Player of the day: Michael Swart (NED)

Disappointment of the day: Mushfiqur Rahim (BAN)

Trivia: Earlier in an ODI this year, Malik and Swart had combined to take four wickets apiece to restrict Lancashire (Ashwell Prince, Ahmad Shahzad and all) to 236 after they had raced to 89 off 13 overs. Swart then returned to top score in the chase, while Gugten and Malik combined to steal a one run victory.



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