Bangladesh complete a clean sweep against West Indies

By pratik
for Cricketain.com

Published: August 1, 2009

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Basseterre (St Kitts): Bangladesh chased down a target of 249 despite being 133 for 5 at one point to complete a whitewash of the Caribbean’s in the one day series as well winning it 3-0. The tigers had already won the test series 2-0.

Bangladesh won the opening match of the three match series by 52 runs, second match by 3 wickets and ending it with winning the third ODI by 3 wickets.

Bangladesh again had the better of the West Indies batsmen bowling them out for 248. Although, it was a much better performance by the Windies batsmen but a score of 248 was still a par score with the kind of bowling attack that West Indies had.

Andre Fletcher was the top scorer West Indies with 52. Skipper Floyd Reifer and Darren Sammy made 40 apiece. Mahbubul Alam, Abdur Razzak and Mahmudullah picked up 2 wickets each for Bangladesh.

In reply, Bangladesh got off to a flying start reaching their 50 in just 7 overs. Tamim Iqbal started off the innings all guns blazing making a breezy 30 off 27 balls with 5 fours and a six in it before falling to Sammy caught by Powell at mid-on. The openers, Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique, put on 54 for the first wicket.

The game turned around after the fall of the first wicket and from 54 for 1, Bangladesh slumped to 133 for 5. But they recovered through a serene partnership between Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim. The duo played risk free cricket just picking up singles and two’s and chipping in an odd boundary here and there to get closer to the target.

Importantly, they knew the batting Powerplay could be taken later when acceleration was the need of the hour; till then it was time to play safe cricket. Mushfiqur picked up a couple of boundaries in the 38th over but he was unlucky to be given out caught behind in the 40th over, when replays showed he did not get bat on a flick down the pads.

Bangladesh enforced the batting Powerplay in the 44th over and immediately runs started coming freely. First, Naeem Islam thrashed three boundaries off Gavin Donge. Mahmudullah then picked a six over long-off against Nikita Miller and Naeem hit another six, off Kemar Roach, before falling to the same bowler but by then the pair had ensured that they made full use of the Powerplay to seal the victory. West Indies were left to rue the first-ball reprieve that they offered to Mahmudullah when Darren Sammy spilled a catch at first slip.

Mahmudullah and Abdur Razzak made sure that Bangladesh didn’t face any more concerns and took them home safely with 7 balls to spare. Mahmudullah finished with 51 not out while Razzak was unbeaten on 6. Junaid Siddique top scored for Bangladesh with 55.

For the West Indies, Roach was again the man who picked up the wickets although he did give away a lot of runs. He ended with figures of 4/63. Sammy picked up 2 and Bernard picked up 1 wicket.

With the 3 wicket win, Bangladesh won the series 3-0 following a 2-0 whitewash of the test series. For the West Indies this series will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Players’ strike, Second string team and not winning a single match against a team like Bangladesh.

But for Bangladesh, this would always be a golden chapter in the history of their game. An away tour where they didn’t lose a single game. They made a clean sweep in both the test and the ODI series. Whatever the circumstances, that is still a big achievement.

Brief Scores:

Bangladesh 249 for 7 (Siddique 55, Mahmudullah 51*, Roach 4-63) beat West Indies 248 (Fletcher 52, Mahmudullah 2-38, Mahbubul 2-42) by three wickets.

Man of the Match: Mahmudullah (Bangladesh)

Man of the Series: Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh)

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