Bangladesh rise above England

Imrul Kayes hits 73 not out as Cricket World Cup co-hosts beat Dutch and leapfrog English into fourth place in Group B.

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Kayes weighed in with the lion’s share of the runs as Bangladesh strolled against the Dutch [GALLO/GETTY]

Opener Imrul Kayes smashed an unbeaten 73 to help Bangladesh to a six-wicket win over the Netherlands, boosting the co-hosts’ chances of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals.

Chasing a modest 161-run victory target, Bangladesh lost Tamim Iqbal in the first over but Kayes chalked up his second successive half century to see them home in the Group B match in 41.2 overs.

Abdur Razzak and his spin colleagues had earlier laid the foundation for Bangladesh’s victory by bowling with tremendous discipline and the Dutch batsmen did not help their cause either with four of them running themselves out.

For them, Ryan ten Doeschate waged a grim battle but ran out of partners to remain not out on 53 as his team folded for 160 in 46.2 overs.

Bangladesh leapfrogged England into fourth place in Group B with six points and will play their final match against South Africa on Saturday.

If Ireland are beaten by South Africa on Tuesday and England go down to West Indies on Thursday, then Bangladesh will go through to the last eight without needing to win their final match.

‘Nervous game’

“It was anervous game because we had to win to stay in the contest,” captain Shakib Al Hasan said. “We’ll be watching that (England v West Indies) match very closely but it’s still within our hands and if we do well against South Africa we’ll qualify.”

The top four teams from the group will go through to the knockout stages.

Kayes lost his opening partner Tamim before the hosts had even registered a run on the board but the 24-year-old, one of seven left handed players in the Bangladesh line-up, kept his focus to carry his bat through the innings in Chittagong.

After Mudassar Bukhari had bowled Tamim in the fourth ball of the innings, Kayes added 92 runs for the second wicket with Junaid Siddique (35) to record Bangladesh’s highest ever World Cup partnership for any wicket.

Kayes then added 59 for the third wicket with Shahriar Nafees (37) before Mushfiqur Rahim clobbered a four and a six off successive deliveries to carry Bangladesh over the finishing line.
 
Rain stopped play in Pakistan’s later match against Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe were struggling on 96 for five in the Group A contest when the light showers forced the players off the field.

The start was also delayed due to light drizzle.

This is the second World Cup match to be affected by rain after Sri Lanka’s showdown with Australia was washed out in Colombo earlier this month.

Source: Reuters