Skipper Litton Das led from the front as Bangladesh registered a comfortable seven-wicket win over Hong Kong in their Asia Cup opener here on Thursday.
Bangladesh put up a disciplined bowling effort to limit Hong Kong to 143 before Das (59 off 39) scored a solid half-century to anchor his team’s chase.
Hong Kong did put Bangladesh under pressure briefly in the run chase before the Test playing nation changed gears to comfortably get the job done in 17.4 overs.
It was Hong Kong’s second successive loss in the competition.
Opener Parvez Hossain Emon (19 off 14) hit a flurry of boundaries to get Bangladesh off the blocks before runs became hard to come by in the middle overs. After the powerplay, there was a stage where Bangladesh could not find a boundary for 33 balls.
However, Das paced his innings perfectly. He slog swept Yasim Murtaza for a six before collecting a couple to bring up his fifty. That 15th over from Murtaza yielded 16 runs, fuelling Bangladesh’s onslaught towards the end.
Towhid Hridoy (35 not out off 36) provided Das with the support the skipper needed in their 95-run stand. After Das could not stay till the end, Hridoy hit the winning run to complete a professional performance from Bangladesh.
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Bangladesh, who have had a T20 reset under new captain Das, dominated the powerplay after opting to bowl.
Spinner Mahedi Hasan bowled the first over but it was the pace duo of Taskin Ahmed and Tanzim Hasan Sakib that troubled the Hong Kong top-order. There was a bit of swing and seam on offer with the new ball and the pacers exploited that well.
Taskin had Anshuman Rath (4) caught behind in his first over before Tanzim castled Babar Hayat (14 off 12) after the number three batter slapped him for a straight six. An outswinger followed from Tanzim and Hayat was in no position to hit it out of the park, leaving his stumps rattled.
Hong Kong struggled to 34 for two in the powerplay.
Opener Zeeshan Ali (30 off 34) played a few crisp strokes, including a six over extra cover off leg-spinner Rishad Hossain before being dismissed by Mustafizur Rahman in the 12th over.
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With a good mix of pacers and spinners, Bangladesh bowling looked like a potent unit that Hong Kong batters struggled to go after.
Hong Kong captain Yasim Murtaza (28 off 19) tried his best to up the scoring rate with the a pick-up shot off Tanzim going all the way into the stands being his standout strike.
It was largely due to him that Hong Kong were able to cross the 140-run mark.
