Cricket World Cup: Bangladesh Defeats Ireland in a Dramatic Win

Bangladesh's bowlers held their nerve to atone for the failures of their batsman, as the pluck of the Irish proved insufficient to overcome the most fervent atmosphere of the Cricket World Cup so far.

In a gripping, low-scoring encounter at Mirpur, Bangladesh flirted with disaster as they squandered a flying start from Tamim Iqbal to crash to 205 all out. When Ireland reached 93 for 3 at the halfway mark of their reply, they were well on course for a hugely deserved victory.

However, six wickets for the Bangladeshi spin quartet set the stage for a flying finish from Shafiul Islam. He claimed 4 for 21 in eight hostile and reverse-swinging overs, to seal a wildly acclaimed victory by 27 runs with five overs to spare.

The result was tough on the Irish who, like the Netherlands earlier in the week, gave the match their all and deserved a Test-playing scalp as their reward. But the belief and unity of the Bangladeshis had to be seen to be believed, as they dusted themselves down after a chastising performance with the bat and set about defending their meagre total with skill, tenacity and some sublime commitment in the field.

Mohammad Ashraful, whose mercurial batting once again let him down when the heat was on, proved a revelation with the ball. His spin-bowling all-sorts picked up two vital wickets inside the first 19 overs. Yet his subsequent celebrations imbued both his teammates—and perhaps more crucially, a rammed and expectant Mirpur crowd, with belief.

There will be many higher-profile fixtures than this in the coming weeks, but few could prove as pivotal to the fortunes of two teams who exceeded expectations four years ago in reaching the Super Eights in the Caribbean.

Ireland's hopes of playing in the 2015 tournament hinge on their ability to produce this sort of performance in each of their next five matches to convince the ICC that they deserve their place at the top table.

More immediately however, Bangladesh's victory gives them a real chance of pushing for a quarterfinal place that their form in home internationals suggest could be attainable.

Here's The Score Card -

	Bangladesh innings (50 overs maximum)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	Tamim Iqbal	c Porterfield b Botha	44	52	43	7	0	102.32
	Imrul Kayes	st †NJ O'Brien b Mooney	12	29	12	2	0	100.00
	Junaid Siddique	run out (Joyce)	3	9	8	0	0	37.50
	Mushfiqur Rahim†	c White b Dockrell	36	95	66	2	0	54.54
	Shakib Al Hasan*	c & b Botha	16	17	20	3	0	80.00
	Raqibul Hasan	run out (White)	38	87	69	1	0	55.07
	Mohammad Ashraful	c White b Dockrell	1	9	6	0	0	16.66
	Naeem Islam	c Dockrell b Johnston	29	64	38	3	0	76.31
	Shafiul Islam	lbw b Botha	2	14	17	0	0	11.76
	Abdur Razzak	b Johnston	11	28	16	0	0	68.75
	Rubel Hossain	not out	2	7	2	0	0	100.00
	Extras	(b 2, w 8, nb 1)	11
	Total	(all out; 49.2 overs)	205	(4.15 runs per over)

Fall of wickets1-53 (Imrul Kayes, 6.3 ov), 2-61 (Junaid Siddique, 8.5 ov), 3-68 (Tamim Iqbal, 11.1 ov), 4-86 (Shakib Al Hasan, 15.2 ov), 5-147 (Mushfiqur Rahim, 33.3 ov), 6-151 (Mohammad Ashraful, 35.2 ov), 7-159 (Raqibul Hasan, 38.1 ov), 8-170 (Shafiul Islam, 42.3 ov), 9-193 (Abdur Razzak, 47.6 ov), 10-205 (Naeem Islam, 49.2 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	WB Rankin	9	0	62	0	6.88	(4w)
	DT Johnston	8.2	0	40	2	4.80	(1nb)
	JF Mooney	7	0	25	1	3.57	(1w)
	AC Botha	9	1	32	3	3.55	(1w)
	GH Dockrell	10	2	23	2	2.30
	PR Stirling	4	0	13	0	3.25
	KJ O'Brien	2	0	8	0	4.00

	Ireland innings (target: 206 runs from 50 overs)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	WTS Porterfield*	c Raqibul Hasan b Shakib Al Hasan	20	31	30	2	0	66.66
	PR Stirling	st †Mushfiqur Rahim b Abdur Razzak	9	18	10	1	0	90.00
	EC Joyce	c & b Mohammad Ashraful	16	45	35	0	0	45.71
	NJ O'Brien†	c Tamim Iqbal b Shakib Al Hasan	38	64	52	3	0	73.07
	AR White	b Mohammad Ashraful	10	20	27	1	0	37.03
	KJ O'Brien	c sub (Suhrawadi Shuvo) b Shafiul Islam	37	46	40	3	1	92.50
	AC Botha	b Shafiul Islam	22	55	36	2	0	61.11
	JF Mooney	b Naeem Islam	0	16	8	0	0	0.00
	DT Johnston	lbw b Shafiul Islam	6	10	6	1	0	100.00
	GH Dockrell	not out	4	21	12	0	0	33.33
	WB Rankin	c Junaid Siddique b Shafiul Islam	3	12	13	0	0	23.07
	Extras	(lb 9, w 4)	13
	Total	(all out; 45 overs)	178	(3.95 runs per over)

Fall of wickets1-23 (Stirling, 5.3 ov), 2-36 (Porterfield, 9.1 ov), 3-75 (Joyce, 18.1 ov), 4-93 (White, 24.4 ov), 5-110 (NJ O'Brien, 27.4 ov), 6-151 (KJ O'Brien, 36.4 ov), 7-164 (Mooney, 39.4 ov), 8-168 (Botha, 40.1 ov), 9-171 (Johnston, 42.1 ov), 10-178 (Rankin, 44.6 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Shafiul Islam	8	1	21	4	2.62	(2w)
	Abdur Razzak	8	0	30	1	3.75
	Naeem Islam	9	1	36	1	4.00
	Shakib Al Hasan	8	0	28	2	3.50	(1w)
	Mohammad Ashraful	9	0	42	2	4.66	(1w)
	Rubel Hossain	3	0	12	0	4.00

Match details

Toss Bangladesh, who chose to bat Points Bangladesh 2, Ireland 0

Player of the match Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh)

Umpires Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and RJ Tucker (Australia) TV umpire BF Bowden (New Zealand) Match referee RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka) Reserve umpire M Erasmus (South Africa)