End of over 1 (8 runs) Bangladesh 8/0 (RR: 8.00)
Soumya Sarkar7 (5b 1x4 0x6)
Tamim Iqbal1 (1b 0x4 0x6)
Mudassar Bukhari1-0-8-0
0.6
Mudassar Bukhari to Soumya Sarkar, 1 run, straight again and whipped off his pads for another run to keep strike.
0.5
Mudassar Bukhari to Soumya Sarkar, FOUR, dropped. Bukhari cannot believe his luck. Sarkar advances and looks to hoick it away into the leg side but gets a thick outside edge which flies through the thin air to third man who spills it through his hands, reverse cup. Goes for four to boot.
0.4
Mudassar Bukhari to Soumya Sarkar, 2 runs, strays in line and easily picked off. Too straight and Sarkar clips off his pads towards backward square leg for a couple.
Early signs of a slow pitch, without much bounce
0.3
Mudassar Bukhari to Soumya Sarkar, no run, closer to off stump. Full length, keeps a tad low too. Sarkar defends into his body.
0.2
Mudassar Bukhari to Soumya Sarkar, no run, fullish length, moving away but not prodigiously and therefore Sarkar comes forward to block solidly
0.1
Mudassar Bukhari to Tamim Iqbal, 1 run, edged straight away. Lovely delivery, on a good length and shaping away from the left-hander who pokes away from his body. A thick outside edge travels down to third man.
Netherland gets into a huddle. Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar walk out. Mudassar Bukhari has the ball. A wide slip in place and four in the off-side infield. Let's roll.
2.55pm Out come the umpires and the teams for the national anthems.
Prince: "The world is waiting to hear the roar of the tigers in world stage. #riseofthetigers"
srs: "Great match of the qualification stage taking place at the most beautiful stadium in india"
Sandeep: "Talking about reaching 160 they should send Mahmudullah early than they sent him during the Asia cup because of the hitting form he is in."
2.40pm Netherlands have rightly, in my opinion, chosen to bowl in ground conditions quite similar to that of the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Bangladesh will have to be on top of the game from the start, otherwise it could get away from them. Par total? Anything over 160, I suspect.
srs: "Netherlands and Ireland always brought great joy and excitement in big tournaments . So looking forward to their qualification to super 10"
mainul: "Good luck Bangladesh!!!!!!Though we don't have mustafiz today, we have some potential player like taskin, sabbir, tamim and mahmudullah. Wish to see Sakib in some form. Millions of people are praying for you. GO TIGERS!!!!!!"
Sushil: "It is easy to say 160 par score but it needs a good organized batting effort with at least 2 batsmen getting a 50 odd score and a quick fire 20-30 runs. And also looking at the dimensions of the ground and good batting conditions even 160 seems not enough."
MamunBD: "It was a good toss to lose.."
Bhaskar: "Last time these two teams met, the match was a last ball thriller where Netherlands won by one wicket. Hope this match will also be fun to watch."
2.30pm Netherlands win the toss and elect to bowl. No Mustafizur Rahman today. Nasir Hossain gets a game. One change for Bangladesh from the Asia Cup final, Sunny comes in for Abu Hider. For Netherlands, Roelof van der Merwe and Seelaar will be entrusted with the duties of spin.
Peter Borren: "Good-looking wicket and will last the full 40 overs. Boys are pretty excited and buzzing. We have watched Bangladesh play some pretty good cricket recently and hopefully we can topple them over."
Mashrafe Mortaza: "It's a different challenge, conditions are similar (not Dharamsala, obviously). Hopefully our batters will get a good total and we have to defend that."
2.15pm There have been hailstorms and some snow in Dharamsala in the last few days, but some sunny weather will be welcomed by Bangladesh. They haven't played in India for a while and captain Mashrafe Mortaza has confirmed the difficulty of playing in rather tough conditions. With high altitude, short boundaries and a tournament opener for these two, bowling seems a logical option. At least that is what I'd do. Don't take my word for it, read Mohammad Isam's analytical preview. The toss in a bit..
zaman: "The effects of high altitude on humans are considerable. The percentage oxygen saturation of hemoglobin determines the content of oxygen in blood. After the human body reaches around 2,100 m (7,000 feet) above sea level, the saturation of oxyhemoglobin begins to plummet."
Jamil Ehsan: "Piyush your thoughts are exactly as mine. I would also like to add that ideally there should not be any qualifying round, but if there is any, then everyone in the top 8 should also play this. Why discriminate in the shortest format of the game when it could be anybody's game?"
VVS: "Its perfectly fair that the top 8 sides are through to the second round and the rest are playing qualifiers. I don't think its a loss to cricket."
Urchin: "va Der Merwe & Sakib, two extremely high class left arm spinners in T20, and they face off in a qualifier for main tournament. Feels a little. err... wrong. "
Abhishek: "To add to the disadvantage to Bangladesh, they are placed in a group with proven upsetters."
Athanasius.: "I love the way Bangladesh has improved over the years almost giving every team they meet a hard time"
2.00pm Not very long ago, Bangladesh were engaged in a high-intensity tournament final at home, in front of millions of roaring fans. A few days later, they travel to high-altitude Dharamsala in order to make their bid for qualification for the main draw of the World T20. How life can change... Netherlands have been in India for a while, warming up and cooling down with practice games. Their last one was rained out and they lost against Afghanistan. But, they won't be particularly fazed by their opponents today, despite coming into the contest as underdogs. Netherlands have toppled their share of heavy weights in the last few years. In terms of preparation, they have also adopted an interesting technique to aid hitting those lengths.
Piyush: "I think its a loss for cricket that Bangladesh needs to play qualification rounds and specially for T20s where uncertainty is the certainty."
