Bowlers do the job

Bangladesh beat UAE by 51 runs

Mahmadullah Riyad stepped into the crease with the team jittery after having lost three wickets in the span of 11 runs. But his unbeaten 27-ball 36 took the Tigers to 133 for 8 before the bowlers bundled out the UAE for 82, scripting a 51-run victory in their second Asia Cup T20 match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday. PHOTO: FIROZ AHMED

Bishwajit Roy

Bangladesh's bowling proved to be too good for the UAE last night at Mirpur as the hosts bounced back from their defeat against India in the first match with a 51-run victory against the ICC Associate member country to stay alive in the Asia Cup T20.
Like their previous game against Sri Lanka, the UAE bowlers once again worked well in favourable conditions to restrict the Tigers to 133 for eight, but the Bangladesh bowling showed their prowess to dismiss them for 82. The momentum Mahmudullah Riyad gave the team during the batting was brilliantly backed up by the pacers, who simply killed UAE's hopes of causing an upset.
Once again Taskin Ahmed generated good pace to give his team a decent start, but he was unlucky in the first over as Soumya Sarkar dropped Rohan Mustafa at second slip. However, like the first match, Al-Amin Hossain provided the first breakthrough by removing Mohammad Kaleem in the second over.
Then Mustafizur Rahman came to the party with his off-cutter but his return catch was disallowed after the third umpire decided that the ball had touched the ground, although it was not a clear-cut decision. The batsman however failed to capitalise on his luck, hitting a full delivery outside off from captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, to the safe hands of Mustafizur.
Mashrafe took another important wicket -- that of Shaiman Anwar -- before Mustafizur all but settled the issue by taking two consecutive wickets in the eighth over, both with his famous off-cutter. Losing half their wickets for 36 runs, UAE were then left to bat for respectability.
For all the excellence of the bowlers, they must thank Riyad for giving them a total to defend. Riyad executed a fine paddle past the fine-leg fence off the very first ball of the final over and then the right-hander slog-swept spinner Mustafa for six over midwicket, resulting in a total of 17 runs coming from the last over. Bangladesh ended the first session with momentum on their side through Riyad's 27-ball 36, though at one stage 160 looked like a reality.
Some clean hits from opener Mohammad Mithun in his otherwise erratic batting display provided the home side an opportunity to post a big total as Bangladesh reached 74 for two after 10 overs. But after Mithun's ridiculous run out, the two most experienced batsmen in Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan were not able to take charge.

Mushfiqur was dismissed for 4 after playing eight balls as UAE stormed back into the match. He tried to hit a short and wide delivery from Mohammad Naveed through point, but only succeeded in nicking it to the keeper. A streaky innings from Shakib soon ended in ungainly fashion when he was bowled by a stump-high full toss from Amjad Javed.
Mithun however was in a position to carry the Bangladesh batting to a big total after a shaky start. The right-hander was the top scorer in Bangladesh's innings with a 41-ball 47 but his dismissal -- if not the shaky nature of his innings -- raised many eyebrows. When he was required to stick around, Mithun set off for a run aimlessly as if he was playing street cricket and was promptly run out.
Mithun could have gotten out off the very first ball when he fished at a delivery outside off. Fortunately, the ball went along the ground to slip. Mithun had another reprieve as he was dropped on 10, trying to clear mid-off. However he played some magnificent shots to enthral the crowd.
He dispatched a short delivery from Amjad with disdain and then thrashed a delivery outside off through the gap at point for four. Later, his timing was on full display as the right-hander flicked Shahzad into the stands behind midwicket in majestic fashion. The next one was a poor delivery from Shahzad and Mithun punished it for four with a flick.
The other opener, Soumya Sarkar, also looked to get rid of his long bad patch and struck a monster hit over square leg to regain the form he displayed during the ODI contests last year, but off the very next ball he hit uppishly straight to mid-on off Shahzad, walking back with 21 runs.
The in-form Sabbir Rahman also struggled and was dismissed for 6 off 12 balls. Mustafa tossed the ball up on middle and leg and Sabbir came down to clout it, but the ball only reached as far as a few metres inside the midwicket fence where Fahad Tariq took an easy catch.
UAE bowled with some bite on the sporting wicket, but it was again the Bangladesh batting which lacked sensibility and firepower. Riyad's finishing touch was brilliantly aided by the pacers to paper over the cracks and finish the match on a happy note.

SCORES IN BRIEF
BANGLADESH: 133 for 8 in 20 overs (Mithun 47, Soumya 21, Riyad 36 not out, Shakib 13; Naveed 2-12, Javed 2-34)
UAE: 82 all out in 17.4 overs (Mustafa 18, Shahzad 12, Usman 30; Mustafizur 2-13, Mashrafe 2-12, Mahmudullah 2-5, Shakib 2-20, Taskin 1-24, Al-Amin 1-8)
Player-of-the-match: Mahmudullah Riyad

PM stands by families of slain Habiganj kids

Bss, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the authorities concerned to build houses for the families of the four children who were brutally killed at a Habiganj village recently.
“The prime minister also asked the authorities concerned to construct a classroom and a library at Sundrateki Government Primary School in Bahubal upazila, where three of the four kids studied, in their memories,” said PM's Deputy Press Secretary Ashraful Alam Khokan.
He said the PM ordered Director General (admin) of the Prime Minister's Office Kabir Bin Anwar to take necessary steps in this regard following a request from female lawmaker Amatul Kibria Keya Chowdhury.
As per the order of the PM, Anwar directed Bahubal Upazila Nirbahi Officer Saiful Islam to take necessary initiatives for constructing houses on the paternal land of the four ill-fated boys and a classroom and a library at Sundrateki Government Primary School.
The Bahubal UNO confirmed the BSS of receiving the PMO directives.
Four children -- Monir Miah, 7, Zakaria Shuvo, 8, Mohammad Tajel Miah, 10, and Ismail Miah, 10 -- disappeared on February 12 after they went to watch a football match at a nearby Uttar Bhadeshwar village.
Their bodies were found buried at a sand extraction area around a kilometre off their village on February 17.
A power struggle between two groups of the local panchayat (village arbitration body) led to the brutal murders, according to police.
Police arrested six people, including Abdul Ali, his sons Jewel Miah and Rubel Miah, Azizur Rahman Arzu and Bashir Miah, in connection with the killings.
Bachchu, another key accused in the case, was killed in a “gunfight” with members of the Rapid Action Battalion early Thursday morning.

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Scam-hit FIFA gets new chief

Gianni Infantino elected president

Gianni Infantino

Afp, Zurich

Europe's Gianni Infantino on Friday won the presidency of FIFA with a convincing win over Asian rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and vowed to lead the scandal tainted body into a new era.
The 45-year-old Swiss-Italian general secretary of UEFA got 115 votes in the second round of the election held at the FIFA Congress while the Asian Football Confederation president got 88.
Infantino takes over the 209-member, multi-billion dollar body from Sepp Blatter with world football's image at an all-time low.
Blatter has been banned from football for six years and US and Swiss authorities have launched major corruption investigations into FIFA and other football federations.
Infantino said that despite the scandals of the past year football deserves to be "highly respected."
"And we will restore the image of FIFA and the respect of FIFA and everyone in the world will applaud us," a visibly surprised Infantino told the Congress.
Sheikh Salman, a member of the Bahrain royal family, was one of the first to congratulate his rival.

Having got 27 votes in the first round of the election, Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan got just four in the second.
Former FIFA official Jerome Champagne had seven votes in the first round but zero in the deciding ballot. South African tycoon Tokyo Sexwale withdrew from the contest before the first round.
The Congress was given tough warnings before the vote that the result and a series of agreed reforms had to convince a world shocked by several years of corruption scandals and doubts about World Cup bidding.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said football and all sports had to improve governance.
"Today you have this great chance to turn the page," he told the congress. "We need to give new answers to the new questions with regards to credibility and good governance."
Earlier a reform package was adopted by 179 members, while 22 voted against and six abstained.
The measures are designed to limit the authority of the new president and his deputies and end the patronage and waste that prevailed during Blatter's 18-year term.
The president's job has been altered to function like a corporate chairman of the board, providing strategic guidance but with less management authority.
FIFA's executive committee, which had become an epicentre of graft allegations, has been re-branded as a FIFA council. It will operate like a corporate board of directions.
Measures such as declaring the salary of the new president to improve financial transparency were also included.
After several years of suspicions, scandal erupted at FIFA when seven top officials were arrested at a FIFA congress in May last year.
Infantino will face immediate financial problems.
Acting Secretary general Markus Kattner said "general uncertainty" following the crisis had created tough economic times and FIFA was roughly $550 million (500 million euros) behind in its $5 billion budget plan for 2015-2018.
Infantino has proposed increasing the World Cup from 32 to 40 teams and to more than double the amount given back to the 209 national associations to more than one billion dollars in total every four years.
Sheikh Salman, who is seen as closer to the FIFA old guard, had said the proposal could bankrupt FIFA.
Infantino countered that his proposals were far from reckless and that his record at UEFA proved his credibility as a financial manager.
"When I speak about figures...I know what I am speaking about," he said.
Blatter, 79, was the big absentee at the congress. The Swiss sports baron suffered a spectacular fall over the last nine months. Swiss police, acting under US warrants, arrested seven FIFA officials in Zurich two days before his re-election last May. Blatter has since been banned from football for six years for ethics breaches and could face criminal charges.
Each of the rivals went into the vote with political problems.
Infantino was for seven years the right-hand man of Michel Platini, the UEFA president also banned for six years for ethics breaches.
Sheikh Salman had faced tough questions about the clampdown on pro-democracy protests in the Gulf state. He has called allegations made by human rights groups "nasty lies."