West Indies v Bangladesh

Game for Pride

The super eight match on Thursday between West Indies and Bangladesh was a game of honor and pride for both the teams. The reason primarily being the exit of both the teams from the world cup. The game was more important for West Indies as they were going through a bad patch and had to prove a point to the home crowd. This was the last match of Bangladesh in this world cup and they wanted to finish it off on a memorable note. However the outcome of the match would not have much bearing on the standing of either team in this cricket world cup. The match was expected to see a good contest between the bat and ball.

Coin rolled in favor of Bangladesh

The Bangla skipper Habibul Bashar won the toss for Bangladesh. He went with the general trend in this world cup by electing to field first. The idea was to exploit the early hour’s condition of the pitch, which favored seam bowling. Bangladeshi bowlers have already proved their mettle in this cricket world cup and this was a golden opportunity for them establish that their past show in this tournament was not a fluke.

Dismal start to the innings….

The West Indian innings started off with early fall of wickets. The openers again failed to push off the innings with comfort. Together they could put up an opening partnership of just 8 runs. In the 3rd over of the match West Indies lost its first wicket in the form of Darren Smith. He scored 5 runs from 12 balls. The other opener Chris Gayle soon followed suit and got out on the very next over without addition of any run to the scoreboard. West Indies was rallying on 8 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in 3.5 overs.

Solid partnerships at the middle….

After the initial loss of the openers the veteran southpaw Shivnaraeine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels took charge of the situation. They played a very cautious innings to bring some stability. They were playing the ball according to its merit. Together they were involved in a partnership of 47 runs. In the 22nd over of the match Marlon Samuels was out on a total score of 55 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. He made 31 runs from 66 balls. Chanderpaul was then joined by Ramnaresh Sarwan. They took forward the West Indian innings in a brisk pace. They gave West Indies a solid partnership of 81 runs. Their effort took past the team of the 100 run mark. Chanderpaul got out after a well made half century while the total score was at 136 for the loss of 4 wickets. Next batsman to Join Sarwan was the legendary Brian Lara. The West Indian skipper played a useful cameo to take the team to a fighting total. They got involved in a partnership of 60 runs and headed towards a respectable total. Three solid partnerships in the middle order pulled West Indies out of the slump they were initially in. The next batsman Dawney Bravo also swung the willow to make some quick runs. He was not out on 9 runs from 9 balls. Ramnaresh Sarwan put up a smart knock of 91 runs from 90 balls and remained unbeaten. He was ably supported by the batsmen in the middle order that took the West Indian total to 230 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in their quota of 50 overs.


Bangla bowlers lost pace…..

The Bangladeshi pace battery started well by pushing West Indies on the back foot. But during the middle overs the spinners and the part time bowlers failed to respond to the need of the hour. Their disability pick wickets cost them dear as West Indies succeeded in putting up a good total. Mashrafe Mortaza, Syed Rasel, Abdur Razak, Saqibul Hasan, and Aftab Ahmed took one wicket each in the West Indian innings.