What an absolute remarkable win for Bangladesh against the West Indies. The victory has kept the hopes alive for Bangladesh in this tournament. They are now at the 5th position on the points table, ahead of Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
After winning the toss, Bangladesh decided to bowl first, on a small ground of Taunton. West Indies started poorly, losing their star batsman Chris Gayle in the 4th over. Gayle could not manage to score a run in 13 balls. A century stand partnership for the 2nd wicket between Lewis and Hope put West Indies back on track. Though Hope scored 96 (off 121 balls) for the team, it was too slow in this kind of situation. Hetmyer and Holder, in particular, smashed few sixes and scored some quick runs which eventually helped the team to score a total of 321 runs on the board.
Watch: West Indies Innings
West Indies' innings was led by Shai Hope's 96 and supported by some very big hitting from Evin Lewis, Shimron Hetmyer and Jason Holder.#WIvBAN | #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/FwqlkSl9dc
— ICC (@ICC) June 17, 2019
Bangladesh had to chase the second highest score ever in World Cup history. They started well, as their openers added 52 for the first wicket. Soumya Sarkar was the first wicket to fell, an edge off Andre Russell’s short ball, to Gayle at first slip. This must have made West Indies think tanks believe that bowling short ball will help them. However, Bangladeshi batsmen were ready for this stuff, they have seen West Indian bowlers bowling the same line throughout the match against Australia and England. The batsmen started cutting and pulling the short balls for boundaries on the small ground of Taunton.
Bangladesh lost two wickets in quick succession, but Shakib and Liton Das were determined to pull off a thrilling win against the Caribbeans. The West Indian bowlers kept bowling short and wide to the batsmen, as many as 112 balls in the match of which 177 runs scored by the Bangladesh batsmen. If this wasn’t enough, they bowled 25 wides in the innings, horrifying. There was no plan ‘B’ from the West Indian bowling attack.
Shakib played sensibly and brought up his second hundred of the tournament and also became the highest run scorer during his brilliant knock of 124. On the other hand, Liton Das who was quite severe against the short balls smashed an unbeaten 94 off just 69 balls, and the pair added 189 runs in only 22 overs. Bangladesh won the match with 51 balls left in the innings.
Bangladesh Innings
Shakib Al Hasan (124*) and Liton Das (94*) were the star men for Bangladesh as the Tigers went to their second victory of the tournament.#RiseOfTheTigers#WIvBAN | #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/NdHvzGvnAZ
— ICC (@ICC) June 17, 2019
STATS
- The first win for Bangladesh against West Indies in the World Cup tournament.
- 322 is the second highest successful chase in World Cup, Ireland chased down 328 against England in 2011.
- 322 is also the highest successful run chase for Bangladesh in ODI.
- Shakib Al Hasan has now 6000 runs and 250 wickets in ODI, and he is the fourth player to make this double after Jayasuriya, Kallis, and Afridi. He is the quickest to reach the double.
- Shakib has now scored five consecutive ODI scores of 50 or more, equalling the Bangladeshi record. Tamim Iqbal was the first one to score five successive 50 plus score in ODI in 2012.
