Sharjah: After suffering back-to-back defeats, West Indies revived their ICC World T20 campaign registering a narrow 3 run victory over Bangladesh in Super 12,Group 1 in Sharjah on Friday.
Chasing 143, Bangaladesh needed 13 off the last over. Andre Russell kept his cool to bowl a superb over to seal the deal although Bangladesh batter Mahmudullah tried his best to the clear the fences but was unable to do that despite being dropped of the fourth ball.
Earlier, Bangladesh lost their openers Mohammad Naim(17) and Shakib Al Hasan(9) early on as well as Mushfiqur Rahim, their talisman on a single digit.The Caribbean bowlers executed their plan superbly despite not having much runs on the board with Jason Holder(2/22) alongside Akel Hosein(2/24) topping the charts.
Liton Das took responsibility on his shoulder playing a knock of 44 to anchor the innings stretching the game and was taking the towards the finish.However, going for a big hit, the Bangladesh wicket-keeper got deceived by the slower delivery by Dwayne Bravo and miscuing it only to find Holder at long on before Mahmudullah(31*) after staying till the end was unable to finish it off.
Earlier, The Caribbeans scratched their way through to 142/7 with their batting line-up suffering another collapse in this world cup. The side have probably paid their price for taking all-out attacking approach to their game plan while no one being there at the middle to play through the periods.Just four among the batters saw their way to double digits while others were unable show resistence.
Nicolas Pooran and Roston Chase(39) were the only shining light in a gloomy day for the West Indies with the former topping charts with a swashbuckling 22 ball 40 while Chase gave him ample support as the duo added a valuable 57 runs which laid the foundation for something for them to hang on.
Both the openers Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis went inside the first six overs with in the form Shimron Hetmyer also getting dismissed just the following over of the completion of the powerplay.All-rounder Andre Russell went home without even facing a ball after getting run-out while the veteran Dwayne Bravo scored just single. Jason Holder(15*) played breezy cameo towards the end for West Indies to get to respectable score.
Brief Scores: West Indies 142/7 in 20 overs (Nicolas Pooran 40, Roston Chase; Shoriful Islam 2/20, Mahedi Hasan 2/27) beat Bangladesh 139/5 in 20 overs(Liton Das 44, Mahmudullah 31* ; Jason Holder 2/22, Akel Hosein 2/24) by 3 runs.
