Hurray! Bangladesh won

What a game it was! Bangladesh hinted an upset against West Indies during the first over when Syed Rasel got the danger man Chris Gayle out. The bowling performance was brilliant and dull on some occasions. But most importantly they kept the West Indies batsmen within 164. I thought they could have restricted them within 140 if Samuels and Smith did not hit those hattrick sixes from Ahsraful's bowling. Aftab also dropped Chandrapaul and did some mis-fields. But what an innings was from both of them. With Aftab's 62* in 49 balls and Ashraful's brilliant 61 from only 27 balls Bangladesh cruised to victory in over 2 overs to spare. Ashraful made a record - the quickest fifty in Twenty20 games.

(Wallpaper: courtesy Cricinfo.com)

With this result Bangladesh storms into the second round and West Indies are out of the tournament. This really was a tough group and feeling pretty sorry for West Indies. I think they should won the first game with South Africa as they were in a superb position.

Here is the ball-by-ball match proceedings from Crioinfo. The highlights of the Bangladesh-West Indies match is here. No wonder the Bangladeshi blogosphere and the folks at Bangla Cricket are celebrating.

Congratulation Boys! Something to cheer about amidst all those disheartening news.

Update: Cricinfo's Edward Craig analyzes Bangladesh's performance and vouches Ashraful's statement that there is more to come from Bangladesh:

Everyone had better be wary of Bangladesh. Big boys may bully these teams at Test level, where all that matters is 20 wickets. Take that out of the equation and magnify the importance of fielding and any well-drilled side can compete.

Bangladesh's simple gameplan - bowl length, field well, hit and run hard - is what won it. They came into this match and this tournament with a plan, each member of the team knowing his role.

This tournament has achieved what the ICC has been trying to do for years, made every team competitive. Ashraful backs this up: "We have been beating big teams regularly over the last year and when people say it is an upset or a one-off it doesn't make sense. We have made the Super 8s in two big tournaments this year and it is about time they stop calling us a minnow. There is more to come from Bangladesh."

Bangladesh will make the semi-finals, you read it here first.

Well Edward lets hope you are right and Bangladesh plays up to your expectation.