Ireland beat Bangladesh, enter Super Eights

Ireland beat Bangladesh by six wickets and with 10 balls to spare to knock them out of the competition and secure themselves a place in the Super Eights. With this result, the India-Ireland game on Wednesday also becomes inconsequential as both the teams are now through to the next round.

Ireland won the toss and inserted the opposition in, on a surface which assisted the gentle seam bowling of Trent Johnston. Bangladesh, on the other hand, had filled their side with four spinners, reducing their pace attack in the process.

Junaid Siddique did begin the inning in customary aggressive fashion, and lost his wicket in the process, but that did not deter the batsmen from going for their shots. Mohammad Ashraful edged one off Johnston but the sitter was dropped by the fielder, only for the shot to be repeated by the same batsman against the same bowler and to be caught in the next over! However, it was the dismissal of their best batsman, Shakib-al-Hasan that sent the Bangladeshis on the back foot.
50/3 soon became 61/4 and 66/5 as the batsmen kept playing their shots to only keep losing the wickets. It was only some late order hitting by Mashrafe Mortaza that kept the Bangladeshis in the game as he swatted a couple of sixes and a four in his 16-ball inning of 33 as Bangladesh managed to get to 137/8 in their 20 overs.

The Irish start was as bad as it could get, as it was not only slow, but they also the early wicket of Jeremy Bray. An injured Neil O’Brien walked into join captain William Porterfield and after watching off some deliveries, the duo began taking on the bowling. As was expected, spinners were brought on early, and despite stifling the scoring for a bit, Ireland looked well in the game at 61/1 in the 10th over.

O’Brien’s 25-ball 40 was ended by Shakib-al-Hasan, and Porterfield followed him in the pavilion soon enough to have the team at 71/3 in the 12th and in the danger of collapsing. Gary Wilson’s dismissal to Mashrafe Mortaza could have sent the cat amongst the pigeons, but some strange tactical decisions by Ashraful in getting his seamers to bowl instead of the spinners and the 17-ball 39 by Kevin O’Brien saw the Irish team through with relative ease.

Neil O’Brien won the man-of-the-match award for excellent knock of 40 despite an injury which made him hobble for most part of his innings.