Bangladesh got off to a terrific start to the ODI series and extended their domination over the Windies, beating them comfortably by 5 wickets in Dhaka on Sunday.
Riding on three wickets each from Mashrafe Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh tightened the screws in the first innings and didn’t allow the Caribbean side to break free and score.
A quality bowling effort saw them restrict the visitors to just 195/9 in their first innings which almost sealed the proceedings in favour of Bangladesh. The highest score from the bat of a Windies batsman was 43 by Shai Hope, who opened the innings alongside Kieran Powell (10).
That they won convincingly with five wickets to spare and 89 balls remaining is no surprise either.
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Nonetheless, the West Indies batsmen were guilty of throwing away their wickets after getting a start. Almost everyone in the line-up got a start but couldn’t carry on in the face of some tight bowling.
Chasing 196, Bangladesh too were handed some blows when they were reduced to 89/3 at one stage with experienced opener Tamim Iqbal (12), Imrul Kayes (4) and Liton Das (41) back in the hut.
But Mushfiqur Rahim shouldered the responsibility and didn’t let the innings fall apart with a gritty 55 off 70 balls that had five fours. He was ably assisted by Shakib Al-Hasan (30) as the experienced duo stitched a 57-run stand that set up the win for Bangladesh.
For the West Indies, the best bowling performance came from off-spinner Roston Chase who took two wickets and conceded 47 runs in his nine overs.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 196 for 5 (Mushfiqur Rahim 55*, Chase 2-47) beat West Indies 195 for 9 (Hope 43, Mashrafe 3-30, Mustafizur 3-35) by five wickets