West Indies coach Stuart Law (L) shares a light moment with Bangladesh batsman Mushfiqur Rahim while inspecting the wicket of the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Tuesday. — BCB photo
Bangladesh national team will be looking to end their long drought for a series win in overseas when they take on West Indies in the second of three-match one-day international series at Providence Stadium in Guyana today.
The match will start at 12:30am Bangladesh Standard Time and will be televised live by GTV and Channel 9.
Since Bangladesh’s 4-1 comprehensive series win over Zimbabwe in a five-match series in August 2009, the Tigers failed to win any of their last 12 bilateral series abroad in the last nine years.
Apart from Bangladesh’s two 1-1 results against Sri Lanka in three-match ODI series in 2013 and 2017, the Tigers came home empty handed on every occasions against other Test playing nations on foreign soil.
Bangladesh also failed to win series against less competitive sides like Ireland and Scotland when they last visited them in 2010.
They came close to end the barren run last year when they defeated Sri Lanka in the first match, but the second match was rained off and the hosts won the last match to level the series.
The Tigers raised the chance of winning their first bilateral series in abroad in nine years after they defeated West Indies comprehensively by 48 runs in their series opener on Sunday.
Tamim Iqbal’s painstaking innings of 130 off 160 balls and Sakib al Hasan’s 97 runs laid a strong foundation that the bowlers capitalised in style with skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza leading from the front to finish with 4-37.
Bangladesh can expect a similar run of form in Guyana, where they have now won their both matches with their first win coming against South Africa in 2007 World Cup.
A slow batting pitch suited Bangladesh’s type of cricket on both occasions, raising the expectations for further success, though West Indies have every chance to hit back.
With the batsmen finally hitting form and bowling attack getting bolstered with the return of Mashrafee and Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh will take the field with a high confidence.
Though Mustafiz claimed just two wickets in the win in previous match, Guyana pitch should have enough carry for him to be successful.
The pitch is apparently a tailor made one for bowling his customary off-cutters that can always make the left-hander a dangerous for the opponents.
Bangladesh will also take confidence from the fact that their five experienced campaigners, who are also known as five pillars of the team, have hit some kind of form in the last game.
Their performance effectively dispelled the gloom that covered the team after their defeat in Tests, where the visitors could barely compete.
But the Tigers are always a force to be reckoned with in one-dayers, which means they have now strong possibility to come up as series winners and today’s match provides them their best opportunity to do that.
Source: New Age.
