Miraz, shoriful lead Tigers to 6-wicket win in 1st ODI

Bangladesh came all guns blazing in their preferred format to grab their first win in the tour as they cruised to six-wicket victory over West Indies in the rain-curtailed first ODI at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday.

Bowlers paved the way in the emphatic victory in a match, which was delayed by 2.15 hours by rain and reduced to 41-over. Left arm fast bowler Shoriful Islam registered his career-best 4-34 and offspinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz claimed 3-36 to help the side seal the victory.

All of the bowlers enjoyed the success more or less in Guyana, which gave the Tigers a perfect Bangladesh-like wicket abroad. The wicket was extremely slow much to the delight of the bowlers of the Bangladesh, who came off the ODI series after being whitewashed in two-match Test series and lost three-match T20 series by 2-0 (first game was washed out).

But there were high hopes as the format was ODI in which they remained unbeaten against West Indies since 2018. The Sunday’s victory took their winning streak to nine against the Caribbean.

As Miraz and Shoriful shared seven wickets between them, West Indies found them in vulnerable state to be restricted to 149-9, which Bangladesh gunned down in 31.5 overs, making 151-4.

Mahmudullah Riyad, whose captaincy and batting was much criticized during the T20 series, was the highest scorer for the side with 41 not out. ODI format captain Tamim Iqbal made 33 before being run out. Nurul Hasan Sohan was the other notable scorer with 20 not out.

As Bangladesh asked West Indies to bat first, Nasum Ahmed who made his ODI debut after 22 T20 Internationals, stifled the innings with delivering maiden after maiden. Three of his first five overs were maidens before he finished with 3-16 in eight overs. He though went wicket-less in his maiden ODI, his economical bowling was the reason of Bangladesh’s pinch perfect dominance over the home side in this game.

But it was Mustafizur Rahman who made the crucial breakthrough, rattling the stump of Shai Hope for duck in the first ball of the second over of the innings. Hope’s wicket was extremely important given that he is the only batter in this hard-hitting-packed West Indies side who can thrive in slow wicket.

After Hope’s dismissal, the task was much easier for Bangladesh as the rest of the batters found them in suffocated situation after getting wicket hard to play the big shots.

But Shamarh Brooks checked his natural flamboyance and looked set to drive the innings. He was the best scorer for the side with 33 off 66, hitting three fours. Apart from him, only No.10 batter Anderson Phillip could make 20 plus runs.

Phillip led the way to compile a total, closer to 150, as he and Jayden Seals shared 39 runs for the unbeaten 10th wicket stand after West Indies were reduced to 110-9.

Along with Brooks, opener Kyle Mayers looked solid but Miraz breached his resistance to give West Indies another setback as the batter was out on 10.

Miraz then got the key wickets of captain Nicholas Pooran (18) and Rovman Powell (9) in quick space to peg back Caribbean innings. As the two mainstays of the hosts got out in quick succession, West Indies’ hope to get a good total was completely dashed.

Shoriful then cleaned up the tail with as Bangladesh got an easier target to snap their losing streak in Caribbean Islam. They finally overhauled the target albeit with some hiccup to go up 1-0 in the series.