Tamim Iqbal takes Bangladesh to series win

Tamim Iqbal 

Bangladesh pipped the Windies to the post by 18 runs in a high-scoring final one-day international to take the three-match series 2-1.

The architect of Bangladesh’s win in the series finale was Tamim Iqbal. Not for the first time in the series, Iqbal headlined his team’s batting, opening the innings and going on till the 39th over before falling for 103, scored off 124 balls.

He had started the series with an unbeaten 130, a relatively slower innings than this one but one where he batted till the end, and had then scored 54 in a losing cause in the second ODI.

The performances, coming as they did after a horror Test series where his team totalled 43, 144, 149 and 168 as they lost 2-0, satisfied Iqbal.

“We didn’t have a great Test series, so we practiced a lot. But this is a format we are comfortable in. What I wanted to do was bat long. My team asked me to bat long, so I did it successfully. The wickets in the West Indies are never easy, but you have to be patient here. Patience is the key and that’s why I got the big runs,” said Iqbal, the Player of the Match and the Player of the Series.

On the day, in Basseterre, Bangladesh first scored 301/6, Shakib Al Hasan (37), Mahmudullah (67*) and Mashrafe Mortaza (36) helping Iqbal with the runs, and the bowlers then doing enough to restrict the Windies to 283/6. Mortaza was the best of the bowlers, returning 2/63, Evin Lewis and Shai Hope his victims.

“Cricket is a mental game. The boys stepped up from the first ODI, but we played well for the most part of the game even when we lost in Match 2,” said Mortaza, who had picked up four wickets in the first game too. From the Windies’ point of view, there was no let-up in intensity. Jason Holder and Ashley Nurse conceded runs at below the match rate while picking up two wickets apiece, and with the bat, Chris Gayle was strong at the top with a 66-ball 73 and while Hope scored his 64 off 94 balls, Rovman Powell blitzed away later on with a 74* in just 41 balls. “We struggled to put together a complete game; 300 was a par score here, and the bowlers did pretty well, but we didn’t bat well in the middle overs. We lost momentum in the middle, but credit to Gayle and Rovman for giving us a chance, but we just weren’t able to tick over the scoreboard,” said Holder. Hope might have eaten up a few balls too many. Looking at how things ended, Powell could well have made a difference if he had a few more deliveries to face, which was something Holder pointed to.

The Windies won the Tests 2-0 and Bangladesh have taken the ODIs 2-1. Next up are the Twenty20 Internationals. The first will be played in Basseterre, on Tuesday, 31 July, before the teams travel to Lauderhill in Florida for the second and third games.