Tigers clinch first ODI to pick up first win in Windies tour

Bangladesh picked up their first win in the ongoing tour of West Indies by clinching a six-wicket win in the first ODI at Guyana against hosts West Indies today.

Mahmudullah Riyad and Nurul Hasan Sohan ensured that no further wickets fell, notching an unbroken 40-run partnership for the fifth-wicket. Following the Test and T20I loss, Bangladesh found the right response in their favoured format, with bowlers keeping Windies batters in a tight leash.

Bangladesh found themselves in a spot of bother, losing two wickets in quick succession after Shanto and Mahmudullah had stitched together a 49-run stand for the third wicket. Shanto departed after a 46-ball 37 when he chipped a Gudakesh Motie delivery straight to mid-on. Shanto’s 37 was laced with five fours. Afif Hossain also initially looked comfortable but then departed trying to break the shackles. He miscued a half-tracker from Nicholas Pooran in the 23rd over as the ball lobbed to mid-wicket after a 17-ball 9.

Mahmudullah laboured to a team-high 41 off 69 deliveries with two fours and a six. Pooran beat him all ends up with a flighted delivery that drew him forward before squeezing through the bat and pad to castle him. However, Riyad was lucky to get a reprieve as Pooran’s delivery was called a no-ball. He found things difficult but ensured that a wicket would not fall from his end.

In the end, the Tigers reached over the ropes with 9.1 overs to spare. Sohan remained unbeaten on 20 off 27 deliveries.

Earlier, Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal set the tone for the Tigers’ chase of West Indies’ 149 for 9 with a breezy 33.

Bangladesh lost Liton Das early as Windies mirrored Bangladesh’s tactics of starting with a left-arm spinner at one end. Akeal Hossein got one to drift in with the arm and bamboozle Liton in the third over as the ball rapped the pads. Liton went for the review but the umpire’s call could not be overturned as ball tracking showed the ball would have hit the leg stump. Tamim started playing his shots following that wicket. A few classy shots off Anderson Phillip accelerated the score in a rain-curtailed match. Tamim found the fine-leg fence with a clipped six to become the first Bangladesh batsman to hit 100 sixes in ODIs. Then he robbed back onto his toes to guide another between point and slip.

Tamim while looking very good, then made the wrong call to run a risky single in the eighth over. Tamim ran towards the striker’s end and Phillip produced a direct-hit from point to see the Tigers’ ODI captain depart for 33 off 25 deliveries.

The partnerships at the top and then Mahmudullah and Sohan’s later in the innings ensured that Shoriful Islam’s career-best figures of four for 34 did not go in vain after he helped restrict Windies to 149 for 9 in a rain-curtailed 41-over-a-side game.