Sharjah, Oct 29 (Agency) Defending champions West Indies kept themselves in the tournament by defeating Bangladesh in the final over of Super 12’s Group 1 encounter of ICC T20 World Cup here on Friday. A tight last over from Andre Russell (1/29) helped the two-time champions register a narrow 3-run win over their Asian rivals, who are now out of semi-final contention with three losses in as many games. Sent in to bat first after losing the toss, Windies put up 142/7 on the board with valuable contributions from Nicholas Pooran (40 runs off 22 balls) and Roston Chase (39 off 46). Among Bangladesh bowlers, Mahedi Hasan, Shoriful Islam and Mustafizur Rahman picked two wickets each.
Chasing the tricky total on a degrading surface, Bangladesh could only accumulate 139/5 in 20 overs as Liton Das scored a 43-ball 44 while skipper Mahmudullah remained unbeaten on 31. It was a combined effort from Caribbean bowlers as each of the five picks bagged a wicket on the night. Bangladesh opener Naim Sheikh (17 off 19) and Shakib Al Hasan (9 off 12) gave a steady start while chasing but couldn’t manage to make it big and lost their wickets during the power play with 29 runs on the board. Das then had a run-a-ball 30-run partnership with Soumya Sarkar (17 off 13) to take their side to 54/2 by the end of the 10th over before Akeal Hosein (1/24) removed the latter in the eleventh over.
Experienced Mushfiqur Rahim couldn’t hang around for long as well and fell to Ravi Rampaul in the 14th over after scoring a 7-ball 8. Bangladesh did get back in the chase with skipper Mahmudullah (31* off 24) adding pace to the scoreboard in a 40-run stand with Das. However, the lack of boundaries from Das, who fell at the end of the penultimate over to Dwayne Bravo (1/36) meant the Tigers had the tough ask to chase 13 runs off the last over. Skipper Mahmudullah did raise the team’s hopes by hitting a boundary early in the over but Russell soon got his line and length accurate and gave no further lee ways to Bangladesh in the over.