Bangladesh beat Nepal to secure Super 8s spot

T20 World Cup, Group D: St Vincent

Bangladesh 106 (19.3 overs): Shakib 17 (22); Kami 2-10

Nepal 85 (19.2 overs): Malla 27 (40); Tanzim 4-7

Bangladesh won by 21 runs

Scorecard. Table.

Bangladesh overcame a spirited performance from Nepal to win by 21 runs and seal their place in the Super 8s stage of the T20 World Cup.

In a tense encounter, Nepal fell short of their first win over a Test-playing side as they failed to chase a target of just 107.

Tigers seamer Tanzim Hasan's magical 4-7 triggered a top-order collapse to 26-5 but late resistance from Dipendra Singh Airee, with 31, kept Nepal's hopes alive.

The Associate nation were in the game with 23 needed from the last 17 balls, but Mustafizur Rahman bowled a wicket maiden in the 19th over to all-but secure victory.

The win sees Bangladesh join India, Afghanistan and Australia in Group One for the next round, and eliminated the Netherlands.

Bangladesh suffered a shocking batting collapse of their own, including opener Tanzid Hasan falling from the first ball of the game, slipping to 30-4 by the end of the six-over powerplay.

They played some reckless shots and ran poorly between the wickets in the face of Nepal's accurate bowling and their high energy in the field, but a late flurry of runs from Taskin Ahmed and Rishad Hossain helped tick the score over 100.

Despite the low total, it proved beyond Nepal's reach on a pitch offering turn and bounce for the spinners and plenty of seam movement for the pace attack, allowing Bangladesh to successfully defend the lowest total in men's T20 World Cup history.

If Bangladesh are to progress from the Super 8s, their batting has got plenty of improvements to make as Shakib Al Hasan's 17 was the highest score, but the bowling attack is one to be feared if they can bowl first or have a decent total to defend.

Tanzim, 21, was electric, helped by the pitch but bowling with pace and hostility to unsettle the inexperienced Nepalese batters.

His two wickets in the third over, leaving Nepal 9-2, changed the course of the game and inspired his team-mates to believe and back up his performance.

Mustafizur then finished with 3-7 to kill the game in the middle overs and at the death, using all his experience and canny variations.

And despite ending the tournament without a win, Nepal have proven they belong in these tournaments with a couple of agonisingly close calls against top opposition.

Their bowling attack was equally impressive, an all-round effort set up by seamer Sompal Kami who removed both openers and finished with 2-10, before their spinners applied the pressure in the middle.

Nepal captain Rohit Paudel: "As a batting unit we need to step up, know where to score runs and how to assess a wicket. We are up to the mark with the bowling.

"This team has great potential. We need to back each and every player.

"We have disappointed our fans. I've seen some of them crying so it was heartbreaking for us. We hope to make them happy in the years to come."

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto: "We are not scoring much but we believe we can defend any total with the way we've bowled in this tournament. We know if we take early wickets and field well we can defend totals.

"We have everything in our attack. In the past few years our pace bowlers have worked very hard. Our bowling unit is very important."

Player of the match, Bangladesh seamer Tanzim Hasan: "We knew we were still in the game, we didn't panic and knew we could win if we kept to basics and bowled in the right areas.

"We are a beautiful bowling attack when we get things right. Everyone contributed today, they all bowled so well and performed our roles."