Shakib Al Hasan’s ninth One-Day International century helped Bangladesh complete the joint-second highest successful run chase in World Cup history on Monday, beating West Indies by seven wickets in Taunton.
Needing 322 to claim their second win of the tournament, Bangladesh finished the chase in the 42nd over with seven wickets in hand. Hasan, not-out on 124 off 99, got a second successive ton and was matched almost shot-for-shot by Liton Das, who remained not-out at the other end on 94 off 69. The duo put on an unbeaten stand of 189 runs for the fourth wicket.
Only once previously had Bangladesh managed 322 batting second, against Scotland in 2015. But the Tigers had already posted 330 in the first innings of their win over South Africa earlier in the competition and they were always in with a shout against the West Indies.
Bangladesh were in a spot of bother when they were reduced to 133/3 in the 19th over, but Hasan and Das launched a stunning attack on the hapless Windies bowlers to make light work of what looked like a difficult chase. This was the first time a 300-plus run-chase was completed with 50-balls to spare in World Cup history.
Opener Tamim Iqbal paved the way in the chase with six fours in his 53-ball innings of 48 before being superbly run out by Sheldon Cottrell.
Tamim, who hit over 30 for the first time in the tournament, and Soumya Sarkar had taken the score to 50 in the ninth over. But Soumya was dismissed for 29 when he scooped Andre Russell to Chris Gayle in the slips.
There were huge cheers from the Bangladesh fans around the ground when Hasan became just the second player to score 6,000 career ODI runs for the Tigers.
Earlier, Shai Hope’s 96 and the joint-fastest fifty of the tournament from Shimron Hetmyer inspired an imposing total of 321-8.
The Windies couldn’t be contained in the second half of the innings as Hope laid the foundations for his country’s fourth highest World Cup score with a resolute 121-ball innings.
Hitting around Hope, Evin Lewis made 70 from 67 balls before Hetmyer smashed 50 in 26 balls, featuring four fours and three sixes.
Quick-fire Hetmyer
It was the equal fastest 50 in this year’s tournament and the third quickest by a West Indies batsman in World Cup history.
West Indies opener Gayle was expected to wreak havoc in the tournament, but the big-hitting 39-year-old has only managed scores of 50, 21 and 36.
Once again Gayle looked out of sorts and he went 12 balls without scoring before dangling his bat limply at Mohammad Saifuddin’s seaming delivery on the 13th, with the edge held low down by wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim.
Lewis kept grinding away and reached his first World Cup fifty from 58 balls. His partnership of 116 with Hope was the West Indies’ first century stand of the World Cup.
A towering six from Nicholas Pooran off Mehidy Hasan Miraz left a hole in the roof of one of the Taunton stands.
But Pooran, on 25 from 30 balls, perished when he tried to slog-sweep Hasan and miscued to Soumya Sarkar at long-on.
Urgency finally injected into the innings, Hetmyer followed Pooran’s gung-ho example with a sublime display of hitting.
Blasting boundaries to all parts of the ground, Hetmyer passed 1,000 ODI runs in his 27th innings. His flamboyant display was curtailed when he holed out off Mustafizur Rahman.
Skipper Jason Holder’s 33 from 15 balls – including four fours and two sixes – filled in admirably for Hetmyer to ensure the Windies went past 300.
Bangladesh have had the upper hand against the West Indies in recent meetings, winning six of the last seven, including all three games in the Tri-nation series in Ireland last month.
Both the West Indies and Bangladesh have won one of their four group matches, with two defeats and one no result apiece.
[Inputs from AFP]
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