… Kayes on song again with unbeaten 73
(REUTERS) – (Opener Imrul Kayes smashed an unbeaten 73 to help Bangladesh to a six-wicket win over Netherlands yesterday, boosting the co-hosts’ chances of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals. Chasing a modest 161-run victory target, Bangladesh lost Tamim Iqbal in the first over but Kayes chalked up his second successive half-century to see them home in the Group B match in 41.2 overs.
Abdur Razzak (3-29) and his spin colleagues had earlier laid the foundation for Bangladesh’s victory by bowling with tremendous discipline and the Dutch batsmen did not help their cause either with four of them running themselves out.
For them, Ryan ten Doeschate waged a grim battle but ran out of partners to remain not out on 53 as his team folded for 160 in 46.2 overs.
Bangladesh’s win added another twist to an already wide open Group B. They leapfrogged England into fourth place with six points.
If Ireland are beaten by South Africa today and England go down to West Indies on Thursday, then Bangladesh will go through to the last eight without needing to win their final match.
“It was a nervous game because we had to win to stay in the contest,” Shakib said. “We’ll be watching that (England v West Indies) match very closely but it’s still within our hands and if we do well against South Africa (on Saturday) we’ll qualify.”
Kayes lost his opening partner Tamim before the hosts had even registered a run on the board but the 24-year-old, one of seven left-handed players in the Bangladesh line-up, kept his focus to carry his bat through the innings.

RECORD PARTNERSHIP
After Mudassar Bukhari had bowled Tamim in the fourth ball of the innings, Kayes added 92 runs for the second wicket with Junaid Siddique (35) to record Bangladesh’s highest ever World Cup partnership for any wicket.
Kayes then added 59 for the third wicket with Shahriar Nafees (37) before Mushfiqur Rahim (11 not out) clobbered a four and a six off successive deliveries to carry Bangladesh over the finish line.
Earlier, Dutch batsmen struggled to score against Bangladesh’s miserly spin attack on the slow track at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
Captain Shakib Al Hasan, Suhrawadi Shuvo and Abdur Razzak’s left-arm deliveries flummoxed Peter Borren’s men, who rarely managed to find the gaps in the field to build up any form of momentum in their innings.
The spinners shared five wickets between them with Razzak proving to be the most destructive.
The Dutch also pressed the self-destruct button as Eric Szwarczynski (28), Tom Cooper (29), Borren (3) and last man Adeel Raja (0) ran themselves out chasing tight runs.
Borren was livid with his team’s performance.
“We said we were going to play brave cricket but we played bad cricket. The wicket was a challenge to bat on but 160 was not enough. We let ourselves down,” he said.
“”Today was an opportunity (to cause an upset). Every time batters got in we managed to throw it away so yeah, disappointing.”
The only man to defy Bangladesh was ten Doeschate.
The South-African born batsman, who scored a brilliant century against England in their opening World Cup match, again produced some fluent strokes to delight the smattering of Dutch supporters in the crowd but eventually ran out of partners.
He was dropped on 14 by Kayes at midwicket and made the most of his let-off by slashing Razzak to the boundary to complete his half-century off 65 balls.