|| CF Correspondent ||

The specter of West Indies’ batting failure in Bangladesh, has been haunting them like the ghost of Christmas past. Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Mortaza wanted to take full advantage of this weakness and, hence, started the bowling innings with spinners from both ends, when they faced the Caribbean side in the three-ODI series opener.

The Tigers included three fast bowlers in the team for the first ODI instead of going for a spin-quartet like they did in the Test series, where the spinners took all 40 wickets to whitewash the visitors. However, it made no difference to the dismal batting run of the West Indian side, as they spluttered to 195/9 in the 50-over contest.

Though the three quicks bagged a total of six wickets, it was the spinners who choked the flow of runs from the beginning, with Shakib Al Hasan giving the team an early breakthrough.

According to Mashrafe, he wanted to put the opponents under pressure by giving them a taste of what they had experienced in the Test series.

“I think Mehidy bowled extremely well and so did Shakib and his initial breakthrough was very important,” Mashrafe told reporters. “When we were playing the practice game it seemed they were expecting pace bowlers to operate. As our spinners were successful against them in the Test we wanted them to go through the same feeling and so decided to start with two spinners.”