Taskin, Saif and Litton put Bangladesh 1-0 up

Taskin Ahmed, Saif Hassan and captain Litton Das played starring roles as Bangladesh eased to an eight-wicket win over Netherlands in the first T20I in Sylhet.

Taskin took four wickets and Saif, playing his first T20I since October 2023, bagged his first two T20I wickets as Bangladesh restricted the visitors to 136 after asking them to bat. Saif completed his comeback with a quickfire cameo to support Litton's brisk half-century as Bangladesh won with 6.3 overs to spare.

Max O'Dowd started well for Netherlands, driving and flicking Shoriful Islam for three fours in the second over. He then launched Mahedi Hasan, who opened the bowling, for a six down the ground in the third.

But Taskin struck with his first ball, getting O'Dowd to spoon a catch to cover off a leading edge.

Netherlands managed just nine more runs from the 2.5 remaining overs in the powerplay, with their only boundary coming through another leading edge from Teja Nidamanuru that just evaded a leaping cover fielder.

Then, Taskin struck again with the first ball of his second over, the eighth of the innings. Vikramjit Singh looked to switch gears and go down the ground, but could only pick out long-on.

Nidamanuru counterattacked, pulling Taskin for a six later in that over before squeezing one past short third for four. That began a stretch that brought Netherlands 27 runs off just 11 balls, before Saif nipped the counterattack in the bud with his maiden international wicket.

Netherlands captain Scott Edwards tried to sweep the offspinner but couldn't get distance on his shot, and Jaker Ali ran to his right to take a brilliant diving catch at long leg. Two balls later, Saif had Nidamanuru holing out to deep midwicket.

Mustafizur Rahman got on the board when a short ball drew a top edge from Shariz Ahmad's attempted pull to leave Netherlands five wickets down in the 13th over.

Taskin picked up two more wickets in his remaining two overs, and Netherlands added just 52 to their score over their last eight overs.

Parvez Hossain Emon got Bangladesh off to the perfect start with two fours and a six off the first three balls of the innings, from offspinner Aryan Dutt. He put away two shortish balls either side of point, and when Dutt went fuller, Emon slog-swept him over midwicket.

Tanzid Hasan also started with a boundary, clipping Kyle Klein through backward square leg, but Dutt applied the brakes next over when he slid a quick one through Emon's defences.

Litton, however, ensured Bangladesh didn't let the pressure build. In the fifth over, he drove Dutt through point before flicking him over midwicket next ball. In the last over of the powerplay, Litton crashed left-arm spinner Daniel Doram through the covers before launching him down the ground for his first six.

Tanzid did a good job in a support role while Litton kept going after the bowling. He welcomed Shariz Ahmad with back-to-back boundaries in his first over, and punished Klein for straying onto his pads, whipping him fine on the leg side for another six.

By the time Tanzid picked out long-on off a full toss in the tenth over, Bangladesh needed just 45 off 65 balls.

Litton brought up his 13th T20I half-century, off just 26 balls, in the 11th over. Then Saif, having got his eye in while scoring seven off nine balls, let loose, coming down the track to loft Tim Pringle over long-on.

Saif then swung Paul van Meekeren into the leg side for a four before sealing the win with back-to-back sixes off Vikramjit in the 14th over.

Litton contributed just 10 runs to an unbroken 46-run stand for the third wicket, with Saif finishing unbeaten on 36 off just 19 deliveries - a knock that will encourage the returning batter, whose career T20I strike rate jumped from 81.25 to 106.02 after this match.