A superb unbeaten 85 by Marlon Samuels, and disciplined bowling by the spinners gave West Indies an 18-run victory over Bangladesh in the only T20 International at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. The win came as a balm for the tourists in their last international match of the year after earlier having lost the ODI series 3-2.
There were batting heroics from the Tigers too, but Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad’s unbeaten 132-run partnership for the second wicket in 15.4 overs eventually went awry. Needing 78 runs off the last five overs, the Tigers seemed to be making a fist of it as Tamim took 19 runs off the 16th over bowled by mystery spinner Sunil Narine.
But they needed at least two more overs like that, which Chris Gayle and Samuels did not allow with their fired-in off-spinning yorkers. Needing 37 runs off the last over, Mahmudullah hit two sixes and a four to end up with a 48-ball 63 featuring three fours and four sixes, while Tamim was unbeaten on 88 at the other end with ten boundaries and two sixes.
In chase of a mammoth 198, the Tigers started like a house on fire, with Tamim and Anamul Haque looting 17 runs off the first over by captain Darren Sammy. Anamul hit a four and a six over mid-wicket off the last two balls. Nine followed off the next over from Kemar Roach. Andre Russell came on to bowl the third over, and Tamim hit him for three successive fours before Anamul hit the last ball for another to collect 17 and take Bangladesh to 43 for no loss.
Anamul, however, went in the fifth over, caught at mid-off trying to hit Roach over the top. That brought to the crease the player-of-the-match in the ODI series decider on Saturday, Mahmudullah. He was dropped off his first ball by keeper Devon Thomas off Samuels, and went on to hit the third over deep square-leg for six.
The pair carried on at a good rate, picking singles and taking full toll of the bad deliveries. But the middle overs were off-spinner Narine’s territory. He bowled two overs for just eight runs, invaluable in those circumstances, and the good work was carried on by Gayle who dried up the flow of boundaries.
Tamim and Mahmudullah tried their best to stay abreast of the increasing required run-rate, but by the last three overs the task proved to be too hot to handle, even with nine wickets in the bag.
Earlier, Samuels reprised his ICC World Twenty20 final heroics as the right-hander brushed aside the early losses of Gayle and Dwayne Smith and scored a sublime, unbeaten 85 off 43 balls to lift the Caribbeans to a formidable 197 for four in the first innings.
It was Gayle’s final chance to make an impression on an otherwise indifferent tour of Bangladesh, but the feared Jamaican went in the third over for just six, playing all around a slower off-cutter from Rubel Hossain to have his middle stump uprooted. Rubel repeated the dose in his next over by cleaning up Smith.
Darren Bravo, with Samuels, added 66 runs in only seven overs for the third wicket. Bravo was the dominant partner, hitting five fours and two sixes in his 28-ball 41 before being stumped off Shohag Gazi.
Samuels, who was as easy on the eyes as ever, owed a debt of gratitude for his player-of-the-match performance to Bangladesh skipper and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, who dropped him twice — first when Samuels was on 10 and then on 23 — in successive overs from Ziaur Rahman, the 11th and 13th of the innings.
Kieron Pollard came in after Bravo and hit two sixes in his 15 before being bowled off a wild heave by Ziaur, who was the best bowler for the Tigers with figures of one for 16 from his four overs. Samuels took full toll after that, combining with Lendl Simmons to take 76 runs off the last 32 balls, of which his share was 58 off 20.
The pair were especially hard on Rubel, whose last two overs, the 18th and 20th, went for 46 runs. The last over produced 29 with Samuels hitting four sixes and a four.
Source: The Daily Star