ICL World beat ICL Bangladesh by 12 runs

The Inaugural match of the ICL 20s World Series featured the spirited ICL – Bangladesh take on the formidable ICL- World at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad. In the end it was a disciplined effort from the ICL –World compounded by a batting failure from the usually strong Bangladesh batting that saw the World side win the tournament opener by a comprehensive margin of 12 runs. Lance Klusener was declared man of the match for all round performance that included an anchoring half century followed by three wickets in the crucial middle overs.

Start of the play saw Habib Ul Bashar won the toss and elected to field wanting to take first advantage of the freshly laid pitch. The World side opened with the formidable combination of Harvey & Goodwin who got off to a quick start racing off to 21 in the second over, till Harvey played a cut shot straight in the hands Kapali, at point off Baisya. Bashar introduced his experienced spinner Mohammad Rafique as early as the third over who struck immediately, castling the dangerous Martyn, to leave the world side in a bit of a bother at 22/2. Rafique struck again in the 5th over, getting the big wicket of Murray Goodwin for a well made 27 off 16 balls that included six hits to the boundary. The five over mark had the ICL-World side placed at 41/3.

Boje & Klusener got into the repair act right away playing some percentage strokes; working up a strong partnership worth over 50 runs at that stage of the match, to take the score to 91/3 at the half way mark of the ICL-World innings. The 55 run partnership for the 4th wicket came to an end in the11th over, with a failed reverse sweep attempt by Boje, resulted in his stumping off Mosharraf. Boje’s innings was worth 34 runs off 23 balls; laced with 5 fours.

Lance Klusener was anchoring the ICL-World innings against a committed & disciplined effort in the field by the Bangladeshi side. Mosharraf Hossain was the pick of the bowlers in the middle overs picking up the crucial wickets of Boje & Nixon for only 30 runs in his allotted 4 overs. Klusener got about his 5th ICL fifty in the 19th over, coming off only 43 balls studded with 4 fours & 1 six. The world innings finally folded at a healthy 167/6 in their allotted 20 overs, foreseeing a interesting 2nd session. For the Bangladesh side it was their left arm spinners who were the highlight in the field, with Rafique & Hossain picking three & two wickets respectively.

The Bangladesh chase got off to a brisk start with the dangerous Nazimuddin hitting two sixes off the third over from Gillespie to race of to 20 runs off only 10 balls. However a shot too many brought his promising innings to an end in the 4th over off Andre Adams, ending the 28 run partnership for the first wicket. The five over mark had the Bangladesh side well placed, right in hunt of the challenging target at 50/1. Aftab Ahmed was looking good in the middle playing some brilliant shots all across the ground, helped by a difficult dropped chance & missed stumping to power the score to 75 in the 7thover , till he was foxed by the experienced Boje to be stumped by Nixon for a well made 29. Harris brought on Klusener in the 10th over who struck immediately with the big wicket of Alok Kapali, cheaply for 1, to bring back ICL World right backing the game. The halfway mark of the Bangladesh innings had the scorecard read 77/3; needing 91 runs off 60 balls.

A middle order collapse where the Bangladesh side lost 3 wickets in four balls had the game do a sudden U-turn, with the scorecard reading a sorry picture at 89/6 in the 13th over. It was complete hara-kiri by the Bangladesh middle order loosing 6 wickets for 16 runs in the crucial middle overs. The Bangladesh side could not quite recover from the batting fiasco, needing a nearly impossible task of needing 40 runs off the last 2 overs. A late onslaught by Rafique, Baisya and especially Mosharraf Hossain (28 runs off 21 balls) was too little too late and saw Bangladesh fall short of the target by 12runs.