Mash, Fizz strangle West Indies
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|| CF Correspondent ||
Fast bowlers Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman raised Bangladesh’s hope to seal a spot in the final in the tri-nation series tournament with a match to spare. The duo varied their pace in excellent way to strangle West Indies and eventually restricted them to 247-9 in their third match of the tournament on Monday at the Malahide in Dublin.
The Tigers would seal the spot in the final, making their last match against Ireland on May 15 a dead-rubber one, if they win the match.
Mustafizur hit back with bang, shrugging of his wayward bowling in the last match, also against West Indies, to claim 4-43 while Mashrafe Bin Mortaza snared 3-60.
Opener Shai Hope continued his rich vein of form against Bangladesh, hitting 87 off 108 with six fours and one six while captain Jason Holder contributed 62 off 76 with three fours and one six.
Mashrafe was particularly key in restricting the Caribbean side to a moderate total when Shai Hope and Jason Holder looked to take the game away, sharing 100 runs for the fifth wicket stand.
He removed both the batsmen across two overs in the space of just eight runs to spark later order collapse before he got rid of dangerous Sunil Ambris.
Fresh from his match-winning 148 against Ireland, Ambris looked ominous when he cut Bangladeshi bowlers in surgical manner after Jason Holder won the toss and opted to bat first.
Mashrafe took out Ambris after he scored 19 ball-23 and then Mustafizur Rahman dismissed Roston Chase (19) and Jonathon Carter (3) to leave West Indies struggling at 99-4.
Left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan and off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz joined the party to suffocate West Indies further. Though both them scalped just one wicket, they were so economical and disciplined that West Indies at one phase went without any boundary for 103 balls.
But when Hope and Holder hinted to break the shackle with the help of flurry of boundaries, Mashrafe showed his magic to remove both of them.
Mustafizur then cleaned up the tail as West Indies lost last five wickets for 48 runs to be held back to a total which Bangladesh are expected to overhaul with ease.
Bangladesh walloped West Indies by eight wickets in their tri-series opener before their game against Ireland was called off without a ball being bowled due to persistent rain.
