Hobart, Oct 24 (IANS): Among the early trends spotted at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 is the falling of early wickets because the ball is swinging a bit and pacers can use the early advantage.
Bangladesh's nine-run win against the Netherlands is a case in point in which the Dutch lost four wickets for 15 runs with Taskin Ahmed claiming two wickets in the first over itself.
In the post-match press conference, Taskin Ahmed admitted that the new ball was swinging a bit more. He said they prepared for that after watching the flow of the first few matches in the tournament.
"Yeah, we have been watching the last few games that with the new ball it swings a bit more than the subcontinent. We, all the bowlers, worked really hard the last few days when we played in New Zealand.
"We just tried to execute our basic things right. We are improving as a bowling unit. We all are doing pretty well. Our main focus is for improvement in the future, as well," Taskin said on Monday.
Taskin Ahmed picked up 4/25 to give Bangladesh a narrow nine-run win over the Netherlands in their first Group 2 match in the Super 12 phase.
After the fast bowling duo of Paul van Meekeren and Bas de Leede picked two wickets each in a very impressive bowling performance for the Netherlands to restrict Bangladesh to 144/8 in 20 overs, Ahmed bowled a match-winning fiery spell to pick four wickets in his T20I career for the first time. He bowled 16 dot balls in all.
Apart from him, Hasan Mahmud chipped in well with two wickets while captain Shakib Al Hasan and Soumya Sarkar picked a wicket each too. The Netherlands were also hurt by two run-outs early in their chase, which almost derailed their chase.
Taskin said he was not disappointed to miss a fifer. "Actually not that disappointed. I'm happy because we won, and for the hat trick, for five wickets, I think you need a bit of luck, as well. But I was just following the process how to anticipate the situation well," he said.
Despite having the Netherlands reeling at 15/4 in the fourth over, Bangladesh could win the match only by nine runs as Colin Ackermann (62 off 48) took the Oranje close to the target. It appeared that Bangladesh could do with some improvement in its death bowling, especially when taking on teams stronger than the Netherlands.
"Yeah, actually in the tournament situation we were more looking for wickets, so that's why maybe we three bowlers finish earlier than Soumya (who) came and bowled the last two death overs. Hopefully, even if -- Soumya also in past, he have done well in death overs. That was the captain's call. We tried our best, so we are looking forward to the future games to do well in powerplay and death, and we are focusing on improvement. We'll do well," Taskin said.