Tamim unfolds new chapter for Tigers

Tamim Iqbal added another feather to his cap when he became the first Bangladeshi to hit a century in Twenty20 International on Sunday in their match against Oman at Dharamsala.
Tamim struck 103 not out off 63 balls as Bangladesh recovered from a slow start to put 180-2 in what was billed as a must win contest for them against the Arabian minnows.
Tamim also became the first Bangladeshi to complete 1000 runs in Twenty20 international, winning a personal battle against team-mate Sakib al Hasan.
He started the innings with 989 career runs.
Sakib was also chasing the record since the start of the tournament and had the chance to join Tamim in the 1000-run club if he could score 21 runs.
But the out of form all-rounder had to remain satisfied with unbeaten 16 from eight balls, needing still five more runs to reach the milestone.
Tamim came close to scoring a century twice earlier when he batted out 20 overs to remain unbeaten on 88 and 83 runs respectively.
His last 20-over innings came in this very tournament against Netherlands when he had to carry the batting burden of Bangladesh almost single-handedly.
However he received some valuable support this time from Sabbir Rahman, who hit 44 off 26 balls.
It was the first match for Oman against a full member of the International Cricket Council but they were not get carried away by the enormity of the occasion.
They maintained a strong discipline with the ball and as a result Bangladesh could assemble just 29 runs in the batting powerplay.
sp07Soumya Sarkar’s struggle against slow left-arm spinner Ajay Lalcheta was conspicuous in almost every delivery.
Tamim came down the wicket to hit the first of his five sixes and Soumya thought maybe it could be option for him as well.
The next time he got the strike he attempted the same shot and was clean bowled.
It ended his ugly innings of 12 off 22 balls, which included 17 dots and just five scoring shots.
Tamim and Sabbir brought the innings back on track with their 97-run stand as Bangladesh added 151 runs in the last 14 overs.

-Azad Majumder . Dharamsala (http://newagebd.net)