Dhaka – The visiting West Indies tumbled at 195 for nine wickets in the first innings of three-match One-day International series against Bangladesh on Sunday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here in Mirpur.Shai Hope was the only batsman who passed 40-runs mark for the Windies. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman bagged three wickets each for the Tigers.
The hosts started their action with spinners from both sides. Mehidy Hasan Miraz bowled the first over and Shakib Al Hasan followed him in the second.
Shakib trapped Kieran Powell as Bangladesh took first Windies wicket at 29. Rubel Hossain took a couple of steps back and grabbed the catch.
After losing the first wicket, the Windies got as slow as they had to wait until 31st over to pass the 100-runs mark. And along the way, the Caribbean boys lost another three wickets.
Mashrafe, the Bangladesh captain who is playing his 200th One-day International, pushed the Tigers to the commanding position taking the second and third wicket in a span of 13 runs. He scalped Darren Bravo and Shai Hope.
Mashrafe removed Bravo with the help of a blinder from Tamim Iqbal. The comeback man sprinted to his right and took one of his best catches with both hands.
Right after that, the Bangladesh captain trapped Hope with a delivery that was away from his body. But Hope looked in a desperate hunger to play the ball, resulted his removal at 43 which remained as best innings for a West Indian in their innings.
Windies were looked nothing but a vulnerable batting-side when they lost the fifth wicket at 119 as Mehidy Hasan bowled Shimron Hetmyer who is often considered Windies’ new generation explosive batsman. But this time, he saw his leg-stump shattering while facing a ball in a back-foot approach.
Mashrafe scalped the stand-in captain of the visitors Rovman Powell when tried to clear the ball through mid-off but that went straight to Liton Das, and he did not miss the chance.
Marlon Samuels was the last recognised man in the wicket who could have made the West Indian supporters optimistic, but he failed while smashing Rubel Hossain for an over-boundary. Liton Das took another smart catch at long-off.
Mustafizur Rahman bagged last three wickets as the Windies tailenders were totally clueless to face him.
Mashrafe and Mustfizur Rahman bagged three wickets each as Mehidy Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan and Rubel Hossain shared three wickets among them. And eventually, the Windies tumbled at 195 for nine wickets that gave Bangladesh a clear edge to start the series on a positive note.
Earlier, Rovman Powell, the stand-in captain of Windies in the absence of Jason Holder who ruled out due to injury, won the toss and decided to bat first with two changes to their playing XI. Darren Bravo and Roston Chase backed in place of Jason Holder and Fabian Allen.
On the other hand, Bangladesh have made five changes to their last XI that played against Zimbabwe in previous home series.
While Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain made a comeback, Mohammad Mithun, Ariful Haque, Abu Hider Rony, Saifuddin and Nazmul Islam Apu were overlooked for the first match of the series.
Bangladesh XI: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain.
Windies XI: Kieran Powell, Shai Hope (wk), Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell (capt), Roston Chase, Keemo Paul, Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach and Oshane Thomas.UNB
