Windies breeze past terrible Tigers

Cricket365
March 25, 2014

The West Indies got some momentum back into their World Twenty20 title defence as they beat tournament hosts Bangladesh by a whopping 73 runs in Dhaka on Tuesday, bowling the Tigers out for 98.

The Windies did not put on their best show with the bat, with Dwayne Smith's 72 the best knock and streets ahead of the rest, as they posted 171 for seven. But the effort with the ball was superb, as Krishmar Santokie and Samuel Badree did the damage.

The Tigers won the toss and chose to field, which has become the norm. They did well with the ball too, with Chris Gayle shackled for most of his knock. He made just 48 off 48 balls, and looked sluggish as he batted for nearly the entire innings.

Aside from Smith's half century and Gayle's 48, the rest of the Windies' order was fairly poor, as they lost four wickets in their final over. Al-Amin Hossain took three wickets and saw a run out off the final ball.

The target was always going to be a tough one for the hosts though, given their recent run of horrific form, going so far as to lose to Hong Kong in the group stages, And from the get-go, this form did not look like abating.

Badree started the rot by removing Tamim Iqbal in the third over, and then Santokie took two wickets with consecutive balls to bag Anamul Haque and Shakib-al-Hasan. This left the hosts on 16 for three.

Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim tried to steady the ship and pushed the score to 51, with Rahim making a top innings score of 22. He was then one of three wickets in one Badree over, reducing the side to 59 for seven.

Andre Russell then joined the wicket party by claiming two late wickets, before Santokie removed late resister Mashrafe Mortaza, who had made 19. The win put the Windies second on the table, behind India. The hosts languished at the bottom.

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Mominul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Ziaur Rahman, Sohag Gazi, Mashrafe Mortaza, Al-Amin Hossain

West Indies: Dwayne Smith, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree, Krishmar Santokie