Roseau, Dominica: Another Man of the Match performance by skipper Shakib Al Hasan took Bangladesh to victory in the second ODI against West Indies. The victory meant that Bangladesh took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 3-match ODI series and got their first ODI series win against the hosts. But more importantly, the win came by way of their highest successful run chase in the limited overs format, reaching the target of 275 with an over to spare.

Bangladesh, who had already won the test series 2-0 and the 1^st one dayer by 52 runs, were led from the front by skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s effortless knock of 65 from 61 balls. He was ably supported by the former captain Mohammad Ashraful who made 64 from 77 balls after Travis Dowlin had helped West Indies put up a good total of 274 on the board making his 1^st ODI century.

Earlier, West Indies posted 274 for 6 on the board largely due to Dowlin’s 1^st ODI century. Dowlin made an even 100 off 117 balls and with help from Devon Smith (44) and some useful contributions by the lower order took West Indies to a fighting total of 274. Darren Sammy chipped in with 22 not out off 11 balls in the end. Bangladesh spinners, who had troubled West Indies all throughout the tour, couldn’t do much this time. Naeem Islam was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 1 for 26 off 8 overs. Shakib Al Hasan, Razzak and Rasel also picked up a wicket each.

In reply, Bangladesh got off to a steady start with the opening pair putting up 46 for the first wicket. But from 46 for no loss, Bangladesh went to 64 for 2 and was struggling a bit. The fall of second wicket brought Ashraful and Raqibul Hasan together and they played with a lot of maturity and determination. They added 52 for the 3^rd wicket before Raqibul misjudged a slower ball by Bernard. He made 20.

And then came the match winning partnership for Bangladesh. Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Ashraful came together with the score at 116 for 3 in 26 overs. Ashraful then started breaking the shackles. He first made room and slashed Bernard in the 28th over for the first boundary in 70 balls. When Rawl Lewis replaced Bernard in the next over, Ashraful lofted him over long-off for a six, bringing up his second fifty in three days. It is the first time that Ashraful has made back to back fifties since 2006. Meanwhile Shakib also joined him in the charge sweeping both Lewis and Bernard over midwicket. Those three overs brought Bangladesh 32 runs, and also brought down the asking-rate to less than six.

When Ashraful was dismissed for 64 trying to go for another big hit of Lewis, Bangladesh still needed 85 runs of 82 balls. Shakib was then joined by Mushfiqur Rahman but the onus was clearly on Shakib. The boundaries were not easy to come – even Lewis negated the big sweep with googlies and straighter ones – but Shakib ran purposefully. He had to run all but six of his last 50 runs, but hardly did he ever let the scoring-rate fall.

But Sammy got the big breakthrough for the West Indies when he dismissed Shakib in the 44^th over for 65 with Bangladesh on 238 still needing 37 to win off 41 balls. Chaos followed in the next few overs with West Indies bowling 3 wides, Deven Thomas – the wicketkeeper, having to bowl the rest of Roach’s overs as he was barred from bowling after he bowled two beamers. Mahmudullah gifted his wicket to Thomas with a leading edge. Thomas then saw two of his straight deliveries being punished and bowled two off-side wides to compensate. Mushfiqur returned the favour by hitting a fulltoss straight to cover. During that surreal period, the only question was which team wanted to lose more badly.

But with some sloppy fielding from the West Indies and luck favouring Bangladesh with a few edges here and there, Bangladesh reached the series win with an outside-edged boundary by Abdur Razzak.

“I can’t explain the feeling,” said Shakib. “The boys have tried their best. The team has been supportive throughout the series, and so have the support staff, and we have done well. This was a good win though. It was much tougher. They really tested us, and they played our spinners really well.”

“We thought that 274 was a brilliant score. Travis played really, really well for his hundred,” said West Indies captain Floyd Reifer. “We knew coming into the game with five bowlers we were taking a risk, and it did not help that we lost three of our bowlers at critical stages. But I thought we played well and put in a big effort.”

“There have been a lot of positives which the guys can take from this series. It’s a young team, and we all need to be patient with them,” he added.

The final ODI of the series will be played on Friday at St.Kitts.

Brief Scores:

Bangladesh 276 for 7 (Shakib 65, Ashraful 64) beat

West Indies 274 for 5 (Dowlin 100*, Smith 44) by three wickets

Man of the Match: Shakib Al Hasan.

Tagged with: Abdur Razzak, Bangladesh, Darren Sammy, Deven Thomas, Devon Smith, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahman, Naeem Islam, Raqibul Hasan, Shakib al hasan, Travis Dowlin, West Indies

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