|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkar said on Wednesday that they should have should have played more sensibly and made sure that Shakib al Hasan, who scored a brilliant half-century, required support in the middle in the opening Twenyty20 international at Sylhet.

According to Soumya if they managed to do it than it would have been a different ball game altogether as that would have helped the host to post a reasonable total and avoid such an eight wicket embarrassment.

Fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell’s career best 4-28 was complemented by opener Shai Hope’s third fastest T20 fifty as West Indies cruised Bangladesh past by eight wickets in the first of three-match T20 International series  at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Monday.

Cottrell used the short balls to precision to help the side dismiss Bangladesh for meager 129 in 19 overs before Hope led the charge with 23 ball-55, his maiden T20 fifty which steered West Indies to winning target of 130 for two in just 10.5 over after they dismissed their opponent for 129 runs that was largely due to the half century posted by skipper Shakib al Hasan.

‘’Like you said, Sakib bhai held the innings for a while. If anyone of us scored runs then the score would be 160 in place of 130. Then the gameplan would be different. The bowlers would have good confidence,’’ said Soumya.

‘’The wicket was good we probably tried to hurried things up. We had to bat slowly as we lost few wickets. If we lost only one wicket in the opening six overs than we could have gathered more runs from remaining overs,’’ he said.

Hope brought up his fifty off just 16 deliveries to place him just behind India’s Yuvraj Singh (12 balls) and New Zealand’s Colin Munro (14 balls) in terms of fastest T20 fifty.