Bangladesh 149 for 3 (Iqbal 50, Shakib 43*, Reifer 1-18) beat West Indies 148 (Powell 41, Mehidy 4-25, Mustafizur 2-15) by seven wickets
Mehidy Hasan registered his best bowling figures as Bangladesh beat a depleted West Indies side by seven wickets in the second ODI in Mirpur to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Mehidy bagged 4 for 25, and Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan chipped in with two wickets each as West Indies’ batting collapsed for the second successive game. At one stage, they were tottering at 71 for 7 but Rovman Powell, surprisingly batting at No. 8 even in this inexperienced line-up, resisted with the tail and struck a 66-ball 41. He was the last man out as West Indies were bowled out for 148 in 43.4 overs.
Bangladesh faced little trouble during their chase, especially after Liton Das gave them a breezy start. Tamim Iqbal, meanwhile, looked happy to play the anchor’s role, scoring 50 off 76 balls, as the hosts chased down the target in 33.2 overs. They now have 20 points from two World Cup Super League games, while West Indies are yet to open their account.
In the morning, Jason Mohammed opted to bat on a used pitch. After being bundled out for 122 in the first ODI, West Indies decided to strengthen their batting by bringing in debutant Kjorn Ottley, the left-hand opener, in place of the fast bowler Chemar Holder, but the gulf between the two sides was evident right from the start.
Sunil Ambris fell in the fifth over when Mustafizur squared him up with the one that moved away off the seam. The batsman got an outside edge towards backward point where Mehidy took a sharp catch. Ottley and Joshua Da Silva looked solid for a while but failed to rotate the strike; there were 47 dots in the first ten overs.
Once spin was introduced, it was the same story as the first ODI as 36 for 1 became 41 for 5 in the space of 28 balls. Ottley, who had moved to 24, tried to go over extra cover against Mehidy but failed to clear Tamim Iqbal. Three balls later, Mehidy had his second wicket when Da Silva was bowled playing for the turn against a straighter one.
In the next over, Andre McCarthy tried to slog-sweep Shakib but, just like the first ODI, failed to pick the arm ball and was bowled. West Indies had added only two more to their tally when Kyle Mayers, who had scored an impressive 40 in the last outing, was run out for zero while responding to Mohammed’s call for a quick single.
Mohammed and Nkrumah Bonner gave some semblance of stability during their 26-run stand for the sixth wicket before Shakib struck with yet another arm ball, this time sending back Mohammed. At the other end, Bonner chopped Hasan Mahmud onto his stumps and it looked like West Indies might be all out under 100.
Powell then struck a couple of lusty blow and took the side past the three-figure mark during a 32-run stand with Alzarri Joseph for the ninth wicket. On the eve of the match, Joseph had expressed his desire to develop into an allrounder and he took a small, positive step in that direction today but Mustafizur’s cutters proved too good for him and he ended up edging one to gully.
Powell and Akeal Hosein added 28 for the tenth wicket before Mehidy returned to dismiss Powell and wrap up the innings.
Bangladesh started their chase positively even though Joseph found some swing with the new ball and kept Iqbal in check. But Das played some sublime drives through the off side, against both Joseph and Mayers, to ensure the score kept moving at a decent rate.
Das’ innings was cut short on 22 when Hosein trapped him lbw with a quicker one. Hosein had picked up 3 for 26 in the first ODI and he impressed once again with his clever changes of pace. He found turn as well but both Iqbal and Najmul Hossain Shanto played him calmly and took the side past 50. Their 47-run stand was broken when Shanto hit Mohammed straight to short midwicket.
Iqbal, though, kept dealing in ones and twos – with an occasional boundary in between – at the other end and brought up his 48th ODI half-century. He fell immediately after reaching the milestone but Shakib, alongside Mushfiqur Rahim, knocked off the remaining 40 runs without further hiccups.
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
