Shakib Al Hasan (C) is the toast of his teammates after the former captain clipped the tail of the West Indies batting with his four-for-16 in the 3rd ODI at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday. The Tigers took the best possible route to rub away the some of the stain of a series defeat as they subjected the West Indies to a score of 61 all out and won the third and final ODI by eight wickets at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday.
Under leaden skies that threatened to spew rain at every moment of the game, the Tigers had to be near-perfect in their approach from the word go if they were to achieve a positive result. Instead, it turned out to be more than just a consolation win that reduced the visitors' win margin to 2-1.
This was the second lowest score at the ground (after Zimbabwe's 44 all out in 2009) and also the West Indies' second lowest total ever (lowest was 54 all out against South Africa in 2004). But this was obviously the visitors' lowest against Bangladesh, and it came as a surprise to all who were anticipating an afternoon of delays.
Instead, Mushfiqur Rahim won his fourth successive toss and elected to field first after a 30-minute holdup due to a wet outfield caused by rain on Monday. Mushfiqur's pace bowlers Shafiul Islam and Nazmul Hossain (in place of Rubel Hossain) then gave the start he had craved in the last two games.
Nazmul sucked Danza Hyatt into edging a drive after both new-ball bowlers kept it tight. Shafiul also reaped the rewards of a tight leash on the batsmen as Marlon Samuels, later adjudged the man-of-the-series for his brilliant work in the first two ODIs, carved him right into Sohrawardi Shuvo's lap at deep cover.
Nasir Hossain then got the spinners into the act. His perfect off-spin turned across Kieran Powell's bat after pitching on leg-stump and hitting off -- big turn that Nasir had professed ahead of the game. Powell's 25 off 36 balls turned out to be the top score for the tourists as the procession had begun by this time. The looming threat of Kieron Pollard was shot to bits as the big man drove straight to Nasir for the allrounder's second wicket.
Darren Bravo then edged Shafiul for a duck to make it 5/36 before skipper Darren Sammy fell leg-before to Shakib Al Hasan.
The country's leading cricketer was in the thick of things from that moment, picking up three more. A straight delivery went right through Denesh Ramdin's defenses while Shuvo had Andre Russell caught and bowled in the next over as West Indies crumbled to 48 for eight.
Debutant Carlos Brathwaite took the matter of getting past Bangladesh's now notorious score of 58 quite seriously but he fell in the 20th over with the visitors still two runs adrift.Shakib conceded four wides when the score was on 57 before Anthony Martin played the worst shot of the innings to close the innings on 61 runs from 22 overs.
The Bangladesh openers came out straight away and with the dark clouds hovering over the stadium, it was paramount for the Tigers to finish matters quickly.Instead, the Tigers took their own sweet time as they reached the target in 20 overs, losing Imrul Kayes and Shahriar Nafees in the process. Both left-handers were done in by the wicket more than the bowling.
The Tigers now play the first Test of the two-match series from October 21 at the same venue with the added bonus of the momentum shift.
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