Nasum Ahmed's 4-19 leads Bangladesh to first T20 win over Aussies
Dhaka, Aug 3: Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed claimed a career-best 4-19 as Bangladesh successfully defended a moderate 131-7 and beat Australia by 23 runs in the first of their five Twenty20s on Tuesday.
Australia was bowled out for 108 in 20 overs, it's lowest total against Bangladesh in the shortest format.
Left-arm pacers Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam took two wickets apiece to complement Nasum and secure Bangladesh's first victory against Australia in five encounters.
Failing to deal with the spinners cost Australia.
Shakib Al Hasan, another left-arm spinner, and offspinner Mahedi Hasan also played their part, taking a wicket each.
Mitchell Marsh, who struck three half-centuries in five matches against the West Indies, was the only Australian to sustain any resistance. He made a run-a-ball 45 before being sixth man out.
The combination of Nasum, Shakib and Mahedi reduced Australia to 11-3 in the third over.
Mahedi broke through with the first ball to dismiss Alex Carey, Nasum got Josh Philippe stumped for 9, and Shakib accounted for Moises Henriques before Marsh got going.
With Shakib and Mahedi denying Australia a flow of runs, Nasum ripped through the middle order in a gem of spin bowling.
Marsh kept the visitors' hopes alive with calculated aggression, and his confidence grew after hitting Shakib for six. Marsh was undone in Nasum's last over when he went for a slog-sweep, and Australia's chances effectively went with him.
Made to bat first, Shakib top-scored for Bangladesh with 36 off 33, and opener Mohammad Naim struck a 29-ball 30, clobbering two fours and as many sixes. Afif Hossain added an unbeaten 23 off 16.
Naim flicked Australia speedster Mitchell Starc for a six over midwicket with a cracking shot in the second ball of the innings.
Starc's new ball partner, Josh Hazlewood, broke through with the wicket of Soumya Sarkar on 2, and Naim was removed by legspinner Adam Zampa.
Shakib and captain Mahmudullah played with caution but failed to rotate the scoreboard rapidly.
Hazlewood (3-24) broke the partnership, dismissing Mahmudullah for 20 with a knuckle ball.
Hazlewood also took the crucial wicket of Shakib when he appeared set to pace the scoreboard.
Starc got a couple of tailenders but Afif Hossain held up one end to help the side go past 130.
The second match is on Wednesday.
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Aman Gupta sides with Piyush Goyal’s comments on Indian startups to focus on deep tech
New Delhi, Apr 06 (PTI): boAt co-founder Aman Gupta has come out in support of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's recent remarks urging Indian startups to focus more on deep-tech innovation. Gupta's comments come amid an ongoing debate within the startup ecosystem where several founders have countered Goyal's critique of consumer-focused ventures like food delivery and luxury goods startups.
Gupta took to social media platform X to echo Goyal's call for startups to move beyond consumer-centric models like food delivery and fantasy sports apps and instead prioritise technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing.
"It's not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger. But at Startup Mahakumbh, that's exactly what happened. I was there. I heard the full speech. Hon. Minister @PiyushGoyal Ji isn't against founders. He believes in us. His point was simple: India has come far, but to lead the world...we need to aim higher.
"It reminded me of something I say often on Shark Tank India, If you want to build a world-class product, you must know your competition. That applies to India too," Gupta wrote.
The minister, during the inaugural of Startup Mahakumbh on Thursday, asked the Indian startup community to shift their focus from grocery delivery and ice cream making to high-tech sectors like semiconductors, machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
He had questioned Indian food delivery startups for turning unemployed youth into cheap labour.
"Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls... Is that the destiny of India...this is not a startup, this is entrepreneurship... What the other side is doing -- robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories," Goyal said, showing a slide titled "India vs China. The Startup Reality Check".
The minister had pointed out that only 1,000 of India's 1.57 lakh recognized startups operate in deep-tech spaces-a situation he described as "disturbing" given India's aspirations to become a developed nation by 2047.
Startup founders including Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma have countered Goyal's comments.
Gupta, however, said pitching the country against China is a smart strategy.
"Benchmarking against China, the US, or anyone else -- isn't weakness. It's a smart strategy. We're already the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world and the fastest-growing major economy. But if we want to be No.1, we need to also go deep into AI, deep tech, climate, mobility, and infra. We need LLMs and innovation stacks that compete on global standards.
"And to make that happen, we also need Scientific risk, More patient capital, Founder-policymaker collaboration and a long-term national vision," Gupta wrote.
It’s not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger.
— Aman Gupta (@amangupta0303) April 6, 2025
But at Startup Mahakumbh, that’s exactly what happened. I was there. I heard the full speech. Hon. Minister @PiyushGoyal Ji isn’t against founders. He believes in us.His point was simple: India has come far,… pic.twitter.com/bA4ontAz1M
