Coetzer’s century goes in vain, Bangladesh win by 6 wickets

The relationship between records being broken and this world cup continues as Bangladesh beat Scotland 6 wickets to register the second highest run chase ever by a world cup side after Ireland’s major victory over England in the previous edition. Bangladesh chased down a target of 319 with mighty ease. Also, this was their highest chase ever in an ODI.

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and put the Scotland to bat. The stars didn’t seem to be with the Scottish side as Macleod (13) had a very short stay at the crease. Macleod was looking good striking two crunching boundaries before falling victim to a short ball by Mortaza. Gardiner also joined the party with Macleod by throwing his wicket away to a delivery that was there to be hit. Taskin Ahmed bowled a delivery which was short, well outside off and was asking to be hit, but Gardiner got out instead. Even though Kyle Coetzer lost two of his partners, he didn’t lose his calm and along with Matt Machan steadied the innings, absorbing the new ball. These two shared a 78 run partnership before Matt Machan got out when the score was 116. Coetzer, well complemented his captain, Preston Mommsen, then started to open up and played his shots. These two took the innings in the final 10 overs and propelled the Scotland score towards the 300 mark. Mommsen got out for 39 after a brilliant 141 run partnership with Coetzer. The partnership was full of excellent cricketing shots from both the players, especially from Coetzer who was playing a gem of on innings. He completed his century by thumping Rubel Hossain for a six. Captain’s wicket was soon followed by Coetzer’s wicket. He scored a brilliant 156 and became the first player from an associate nation to notch up a 150. Cameos from Berrington and Cross saw Scotland post a huge 318.

Bangladesh had gone into the innings break knowing they would be without Anamul Haque, who had hurt his right shoulder in the 31st over while fielding for his side. Mashrafe had hobbled for much of the Scotland innings and was unable to complete his 10 overs. To add salt to the wound, Soumya Sarkar was cauht down the leg side of the bowling of Josh Davey in the second over. But the experienced campaigner Tamim Iqbal with Mahmudullah who was promoted at no.3 absorbed the pressure and shared a 139 run partnership in just 130 balls. This partnership was pivotal for the Bangladeshi chase. Mahmudullah got out after a run a ball 62. Former captain and wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim came out and upped the ante. Both the batsman were playing freely before Tamim got out lbw to Davey missing on his 5th international ton. But Mushfiqur continued to play his shots. He played excellently for his 60 of 42 balls hitting 6 fours and 2 biggies. When Bangladesh lost Rahim, the team only required 72 runs from the same no. of deliveries. Run a ball 72 wasn’t going to be a difficult task for Bangladesh’s best player Shakib Al Hasan who remained not out on 52 with Sabbir Rahman.

This was Scotland’s best chance to win a world cup match but poor bowling resulted in Bangladeshi’s victory. Kyle Coetzer was the man of the match for his 156. Tamim Iqbal’s innings of 95 is now the highest individual score by a batsman from Bangladesh in World Cups. Bangladesh are now on 5 points and need 1 victory from the next 2 matches to qualify for the quarterfinals. They face England next who have to win the match to stay in the contention.