Scotland easy victors Tigers slip to ninth place in rankings

Bangladesh suffered their first defeat on the tour of Europe when Scotland scripted a 34-run victory in their first T20 International against the Tigers at the Voorburg Cricket Club in The Hague last night.

Scotland's opening batsman Richie Berrington was the hero of the match as his sparkling hundred brought Mushfiqur Rahim's men down to earth. Bangladesh had clinched the series against Ireland 3-0 to move into the fourth position on the ICC T20 rankings, but the defeat against Scotland pulled them down to the ninth position.

The Tigers, who take on the Netherlands in the second T20 International match at the same venue today, tasted their first defeat on the tour mainly because of their poor batting performance. Chasing a fighting 163-run target, they ended up on 128 with two overs to spare.

The visitors lost wickets at regular intervals after opener Mohammad Ashraful fell victim of a run out for eight runs. Tamim Iqbal looked confident but was dismissed for only 26 runs. And thereon nobody could stand up and salvage pride against the Associate Member country against whom they won all three ODI matches previously. Shakib Al Hasan was the top-scorer for Bangladesh but the left-hander's 28-ball 31 had hardly any impact on the outcome of the match.

Earlier Scotland rode on Berrington's splendid hundred to put up a fighting total of 162 for seven after deciding to bat.

The 25-year old right-handed opener guided the Scottish innings single handedly and played the Bangladeshi spinners brilliantly on way to his first international hundred. Berrington smashed ten fours and five sixes during his 56-ball innings and reached his century in style when he came down against left-arm spinner Shakib and lofted him over long-on for a six to become only the seventh batsman to reach the magical three figures in T20 Internationals.

Berrington along with Calum MacLeod made a confident start before Shakib gave the breakthrough for the visitors removing the latter, who came down the track but failed to connect the ball and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim made no mistake to complete the stumping.

Abul Hossain was the most expensive Bangladeshi bowler giving away 32 runs in three overs without any success and the spinners, the main strength of the Bangladesh bowling, failed to pose any threat.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the "Narail Express" who was the hero in the last match against Ireland with all-round performance, was the most successful bowler again, picking up two wickets for 22 runs in 4 overs.

SCORES IN BRIEF
SCOTLAND: 162-7 in 20 overs (Berrington 100, MacLeod 19, Coetzer 14, Mommsen 12; Mashrafe 2-22, Razzak 1-33, Shakib 1-37, Riyad 1-20)

BANGLADESH: 128 all out in 18 overs (Tamim 26, Ashraful 8, Shakib , Mushfiqur 9, Riyad 9, Nasir 7, Zia 9, Mashrafe 15, Razzak 1, Sunny 1 not out, Hasan 9, Davey 3-23, Haq 3-27)

Result: Scotland won by 34 runs.

Man-of-the-match: Richie Berrington.