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Ashraful's blitz
sends Windies out of the tournament! |
Link to
Scorecard
West
Indies have been knocked out of the ICC World
Twenty20 by a 27-ball innings from the tiny
Mohammad Ashraful. The Bangladesh Captain
cracked 7 fours and 3 sixes to smash 61 in 27 as
Bangladesh motored to a target of 165 in just 18
overs at the loss of four wickets! Aftab Ahmed,
another clean striker of the ball and another
short batsman in height packed a punch in his
unbeaten 62 from 49 which had 8 fours and a six.
West Indies having lost its two group matches
are sadly out of the tournament although Chris
Gayle had begun the tournament with an
unbelievable hundred.
It was Chris Gayle's
duck in the third ball of the match that had
pumped up the Bangladeshi Tigers in front of
some good number of supporters. Gayle played a
cut shot straight into the hands of point after
leaving the first two deliveries of Syed Rasel.
The first over from Rasel went onto be a wicket
maiden. Rasel almost bowled a maiden in his 3rd
over but for a last ball single as Windies
started in an overcautious fashion on a damp
pitch at Johannesburg. It was a delayed start at
the Wanderers because of the pitch being over
watered by the groundsmen! Bangladesh
straightaway asked West Indies to bat first
having won an important toss. Windies innings
took off gradually with Devon Smith scoring 51
from 52 with 6 fours and Chanderpaul making 37
from 31 with 3 fours and 2 sixes. But both
batsmen didn't play with the freedom that one
associates with this game.
West Indies managed to
put 164 towards the end at the loss of 8 wickets
which was a total that had to be defended by
good bowling. Marlon Samuels with 27 from 14
with a couple of fours and sixes and Dwayne
Smith with 29 from just 7 balls which included
four sixes were the big hitters of the day for
West Indies. The bowling was brilliant backed up
by the fielding for Bangladesh along with good
field placement from Ashraful. Rasel ended up
with 4 overs on the trot conceding just 10 runs
along with the wicket of Gayle. Shakib-al-Hasan
dismissed four batsmen to halt the West Indies'
progress besides giving away 34 in his 4.
Bangladesh started
poorly losing its two dashing openers -
Nazimuddin and Tamim Iqbal cheaply. Ashraful
walked in with his team at 28 for 2 after 4
overs and when he left the park, Bangladesh were
just 29 away from victory with 34 balls to
spare. He was well supported by Aftab Ahmed
whose innings was a rapid one too but can be
called as a sheet anchor's role in this mini
game.
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