Day 3 Talking Points: Tigers' relief, Berrington's magic
Bangladesh live to fight another day
The nerves were clear to see as Bangladesh faced up to the possibility of becoming the first team to be knocked out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
It looked to be going wrong for the Tigers when Mahmud Ullah dropped Jatinder Singh, with the weight of the world appearing to weigh heavily on the team’s shoulders.
Defeat to the co-hosts Oman would have seen Bangladesh fail to qualify for the Super 12 stage. But a wonderful revival in the second half of the Oman chase, spearheaded by the outstanding Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan, means Bangladesh’s qualification hopes remain alive.
Improving the powerplay bowling and trying to somehow relieve the pressure of expectation are the two key things for the Bangladesh coaching staff to focus on ahead of the third and final group game against Papua New Guinea.
The Jatinder Singh show continues
The Oman opening batter has been one of the stars of the tournament so far, playing a leading role in both of Oman’s games at the top of the order.
His stunning 73 off 42 balls made short work of the target against Papua New Guinea in the opening game.
And he looked set to do it once more against the top-ranked side in Group B, racing to 40 off 33 deliveries.
With Singh at the crease anything looked possible, but Bangladesh talisman Shakib Al Hasan took the prized scalp and that ultimately proved the difference on the night, with Oman's chase unravelling the moment Singh departed.
Butt’s Superman impression
There has been some stunning fielding already at this ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. But not much will top Fayyaz Butt’s outrageous snaffle off his own bowling at the Oman Cricket Academy Ground.
Butt had to react, change direction, and execute a diving one-handed take, but that is exactly what he did to dismiss Mahedi Hasan and leave Bangladesh two-down in the powerplay.
SCOTLAND V PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Piece of history for Berrington
Scotland were in a spot of bother after they lost their openers inside the Powerplay. Richie Berrington and Matthew Cross had to steady the ship first, but once they did, the two teed off in the middle overs to give the Scotland innings some much-needed impetus.
While Cross fell short of a well-deserved fifty by five runs, Berrington batted deep to ensure Scotland put on a challenging total.
En route his 70 off 49 balls, Richie Berrington became the first Scotland batter to score a half-century in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup and also finished as their highest-run scorer in an innings in T20 World Cups.
A flying Berrington
After his heroics with the bat, Berrington had a moment of magic on the field as well, pulling off a spectacular catch at backward point.
With Josh Davey bowling the final over of the Poweplay, Simon Atai struck it well. The ball seemed it would race away to the boundary, only for Berrington to leap and stick his left hand out. The ball stuck and Scotland were ecstatic!
That helped reduce PNG to 35/5 in the Powerplay, which proved difficult for the Barramundis to come back from.
PNG's spirited fightback – twice
In both innings, PNG fought back with tremendous grit when it looked like Scotland were running away with the game.
In the first innings, when Calum MacLeod and Richie Barrington were batting, a massive score of over 180 seemed attainable. PNG, however, pulled it back in the death with six wickets in the last two overs, giving away just 15 runs, to restrict Scotland to 165/9.
With the bat, it looked like PNG were down and out at 35/5 and then 67/6, but their batting depth came through and they almost pulled off the improbable. Some late pyrotechnics from Norman Vanua, Kiplin Doriga and Chad Soper gave Scotland a scare, but it was too uphill a climb as PNG fell short by 17 runs.