TAUNTON, Monday – Bangladesh’s world-class all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan hit his second century of the ongoing Cricket World Cup and shared an enterprising record fourth wicket stand of 189 off 135 balls with Liton Das to guide his team to their highest run chase in history and a stunning win over West Indies by seven wickets at the County ground here on Monday.
Shakib played the anchor role beautifully as he figured in important partnerships for Bangladesh to successfully chase down West Indies score of 321-8 to win with 51 balls to spare by making 322 for three wickets.
Man of the Match Shakib’s century comes on the back of his 121 against England at Cardiff nine days ago. In the process of scoring his match-winning century 124 not out off 99 balls (16 fours) Shakib passed 6000 ODI runs for his country.
Das was equally brilliant taking over the main role from Shakib after his senior partner had reached his century to remain unbeaten on 94 scored off 69 balls with eight fours and four sixes.
The win placed Bangladesh up the World Cup standings to fifth in the table pushing Sri Lanka to sixth.
It was a crucial game for both teams and that Bangladesh came out on top was no surprise.
On a small ground where the margin for error for a bowler is so small West Indies paid dearly for going into the match with very little variations in their bowling by including five fast bowlers and not a single spinner whereas in comparison Bangladesh played three.
Sri Lanka found out for themselves in the harshest of manner in the World Cup match played at this same venue in 1999 when India clobbered them for 373 runs for six wickets of which 318 runs came from a second wicket partnership between Sourav Ganguly (183) and Rahul Dravid (145)
That Bangladesh triumphed in this important contest was because of the vast experience they had with so many senior players in the side. They have been consistently playing for more than ten years and hence, their players were so good they knew how to handle pressure matches like this one. It is one of the reasons why Bangladesh cricket has succeeded over the decade.
West Indies invited to bat first by Bangladesh put up a decent total scoring 321-8 this despite two of the biggest hitters in the game Christ Gayle and Andre Russell both getting out without scoring.
The innings was constructed around three contrasting half-centuries from opener Evon Lewis who contributed an aggressive 70 off 67 balls (6 fours, 2 sixes) and Shai Hope who missed out on a maiden World Cup hundred by four runs when he was dismissed for 96 scored off 121 balls (4 fours, 1 six). The pair added 116 for the second wicket after Gayle’s dismissal in the fourth over.
However the final impetus for West Indies’ innings was given by Shimron Hetmyer who hit a 26-ball half century with seven hits to the ropes that included three sixes. Skipper Jason Holder joined him in an entertaining 39-run stand off 22 balls contributing 33 off 15 balls.
Bangladesh were guilty of bowling some loose overs in this phase of play that allowed West Indies to cross the 300-run mark and their captain Mashrafe Mortaza was guilty of not giving his key wicket-taker Mustafizur Rahman (3/59) his full quota of overs.
The West Indies’ tactics of trying to bowl the opposition out with short-pitched balls failed to materialise on this occasion as the surface hardly offered them any bounce or movement and the short boundaries weren’t of any help either.
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