After a wait of almost two long years, Bangladesh have finally won a series in international cricket. The best part, however, is the fact that they won it away from home in West Indies.

Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first on a belter of a surface at St. Kitts. Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haque Bijoy started slowly when then latter fell prey to the fangs of Devendra Bishoo.

After that, the famous pairing of Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan continued as they shared an 81-run stand for the second wicket. Shakib departed with the score at 116 and his personal score at 37 from 44 balls.

Meanwhile, Tamim kept batting steadily and was playing lesser dot balls than he did in the second ODI. He ended up with yet another century and also became the only player after Quinton De Kock to register more than 250 runs in a 3-match ODI series more than once.  Soon after that, Mushfiqur Rahim departed but the runs kept flowing in due to small-but-significant partnerships.

Mahmudullah Riyad came in and played a fantastic knock of 67 not-out, where he finished the innings for his team in style. He was also helped by Mashrafe Mortaza, who promoted himself to number six, as the captain smashed 36 from 25 balls.

Sabbir Rahman and Mosaddek Hossain scored 12 and 11 from 9 and 5 balls.

For the West Indian bowlers, Ashley Nurse and captain Jason Holder took two wickets each while Devendra Bishoo and Sheldon Cottrell picked a scalp each.

In response, West Indies, too, started steadily with Evin Lewis playing cautiously while Chris Gayle took on the bowlers. However, Lewis departed in the 11^th over as Mashrafe took his wicket.

After a partnership of 52 runs between Chris Gayle and Shai Hope, the big man from Jamaica departed after scoring 73 from 66 balls. Shai Hope hung on to the crease but played over-cautiously at a time when the required-rate was already over 6.

The centurion from the second ODI, Shimron Hetmeyer scored 30 runs from 42 balls before departing to the pavilion. Rovman Powell came in and played a blazing knock of 74 from 41 balls but couldn’t get his team across the target. Hope, too, fell for 64 from 94 balls.

Captain Mortaza might have given away 63 runs in his 10 overs but took two wickets in the process. Mehidy Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain also took a wicket each as Bangladesh won the match by 18 runs.

What they said

Mashrafe Mortaza (winning captain):

‘Obviously, if you look at the last 3-4 months, winning this series was very important for us, especially ahead of the Asia Cup. But, as I have said before, there are areas to improve. Winning the series isn’t everything. We still have to improve in many places.

‘Today, Rubel Hossain did what the side wanted from him. These are the small improvements. Considering everything, I would say that this was a good series win for us.

‘The wicket was good [to bat on]. I think it would have been better if we had scored 20-25 runs more. Getting wickets early was necessary while bowling since their top-order is very strong.’

Tamim Iqbal (man of the match and series): 

‘I have nothing much to say about my batting. When your side wins, there is no better feeling than that. I can only say that I didn’t lose patience in any of the three ODIs. I have got the reward of my hard work. Not everyone was successful in this ODI series but everybody worked hard.

‘It is a very satisfying win since this is the first time since 2015 (2016, actually) that we have won a series. We came here with lots of hope but nothing came our way in the Test series, so it was important for us to win this series after that.

‘The best part was that none of the boys lost hope, everyone believed that we could win. Considering everything, this series win is a big source of joy.’

Jason Holder (losing captain):

‘We struggled completely throughout the series. Just not good enough today, particularly. We should have done better with the ball. We came back well in the last game, but we couldn't quite make it happen today. Lost momentum in the middle.