World Twenty20: Tamim stars as Bangladesh beat Netherlands

Tamim Iqbal made an unbeaten 83 from only 58 balls as Bangladesh started their World Twenty20 campaign with an eight-run victory over Netherlands in Dharamsala on Wednesday.

The Tigers, favourites to win Group A and progress to the Super 10 stage, were indebted to opening batsman Tamim for avoiding an upset on the second day of the tournament.

Tamim scored the third-highest total by a Bangladesh batsman in a T20 and was just five short of equalling the record he holds when the innings closed on 153-7.

Stephan Myburgh and Peter Borren scored 29 apiece, but the Dutch – who beat England in the World T20 two years ago – fell short on 145-7 after threatening a surprise win.

Bangladesh came into the tournament full of confidence after they were runners-up to India in the Asia Cup on home soil, but would have been in all kinds of trouble had Tamim not held the innings together.

The dangerous left-hander smashed three sixes and hit a further six boundaries as wickets tumbled around him, with Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman the next highest scores despite making only 15.

Timm van der Gugten (3-21) was the pick of the Netherlands bowlers, but they came up short with the bat as Al-Amin Hossain (2-24) and Shakib Al Hasan (2-28) did the bulk of the damage in the absence of Mustafizur Rahman due to a side strain.

Netherlands needed 17 to win off the last over, but some impressive death bowling from Taskin Ahmed denied them.