Controlled aggression key to Tanzim's career-best bowling figures

Tanzim Hasan Sakib was one of the main reasons behind Bangladesh's 21-run win against Nepal in the Group D match of the T20 World Cup in Kingstown on Sunday.

He took a career-best figures of 4-7 in his four overs and took out the top order of the Nepal batting, allowing Bangladesh to defend 106 runs, the lowest successfully defended total in a T20 World Cup match.

"We just wanted to keep things simple. We wanted to bowl in good areas and did not want to panic," Tanzim said after winning the Player of the Match award for his performance.

The right-arm fast-medium bowler got the ball to swing away from the right-handed batters early in the innings and bowled good channels.

As a result, he broke the record for the most number of dot balls bowled by a bowler in a T20I World Cup match with 21 dot balls.

"We knew we could defend this score. Everybody bowled well. As a bowling attack, we bowled well and that is why we defended the score," he explained, after breaking the previous record of 20 dot balls held by Ottniel Baartman.

Tanzim showed good fire and aggression during his bowling, which rattled the Nepal batters and there was a war of words between him and the Nepal captain Rohit Paudel during Nepal's run chase. 

"I just want to be aggressive and execute my plans. We are really excited about the Super Eight. We are very confident about it and hopefully (we can do well)," he added.

Bangladesh will face Australia on 20 June, India on 22 June and Afghanistan on 25 June in the Super 8 stage and will need at least two wins to qualify for the semis.

Their third match against Afghanistan will be in the same venue, Kingstown, where bowlers, especially spinners have gotten a lot of joy and batting has been difficult.

"(Facing) spin-bowling was tough, and it was not easy to get those runs. We held our lines and lengths, and it worked," Tanzim said, explaining how tough it was batting on that surface and facing the Nepal bowlers.