Mustafizur grabs five-for but Kiwis pile 145/8

Left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahim grabbed a career-best five-wicket haul but New Zealand still piled up a challenging 145 for 8 against Bangladesh in their ICC World Twenty20 Super 10 fixture at Eden Gardens today.
Mustafizur (5/22) dished out the best bowling figures of the ongoing tournament in a sheer display of his cutters but that was not enough as Bangladesh opted for a defensive strategy.
Bowling out openers Henry Nicholls (7) and Kane Williamson (42) in his first two overs, Mustafizur was deadly with his variation. He also dismissed Grant Elliott (9) but only returned in the death and completed a fine five-four with two wickets in successive balls of the last over.

Despite his incisive bowling that troubled Kiwis batsmen, Mashrafe Mortaza opted for a defensive strategy to keep him for the death as in the meantime Williamson and Colin Munro (35) ensured that their run-rate keep on ticking.
Ross Taylor also played a fine cameo of 28 from 24 balls (2x4, 1x6) to take New Zealand to a total which may give them some confidence in their bid to top group 2 in an otherwise inconsequential Super 10 fixture.
Sultry conditions on offer, the otherwise rampaging Kiwis were surprisingly sluggish with their batting display in absence of Martin Guptill who was rested. The Kiwis were off to a sedate start after skipper Williamson once again opted to bat for fourth successive time.

In between, Mustafizur Rahim bowled two deadly overs, shattering stumps of Nicholls and Williamson but strangely Bangladesh opted for a defensive strategy to preserve their pace spearhead for the death.

Having bowled Nicholls with a slower cutter to give the breakthrough in the fourth over, Mustafizur was brought back in the ninth over as the New Zealand skipper attacked him with a boundary.
But he bounced back strongly to frustrate Williamson with his variation in the next two balls before grabbing his stumps with sheer intelligence by bowling him round the legs.
There was a big setback for Bangladesh in the next over when left-hander Munro was trapped in front the middle stump by a Shakib delivery but South African umpire Johan Cloete was not convinced.

Bangladesh also had a mixed outing on the field, dropping two regulation catches to go with their two fine efforts by Shuvagata Hom and Mohammad Mithun to dismiss Grant Elliott (9) and Taylor.
Dropped on 9 by Al Amin Hossain, Taylor provided the big push to the target towards the end.