Bangladesh clinched the one-day international series and moved up to the second position in the World Cup Super-League points table by defeating West Indies by 120 runs in the third and final match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Monday.
Tamim Iqbal led the way by scoring his 49th half-century in ODIs and he was followed by Shakib Al Hasan who registered his 48th.
Brothers-in-law Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah also joined the party by scoring fifties which helped Bangladesh amass 297 runs for six wickets after being sent to bat first.
West Indies were all out for 177 runs in 44.2 overs, which handed Bangladesh their second biggest ever win against the Caribbean side in ODIs.
West Indies had a shaky start as Mustafizur Rahman removed both openers, Kjorn Ottley (1) and Sunil Ambris (13) while Mehidy Hasan trapped Kyle Meyers (11) for leg before wicket.
Nkrumah Bonner (31) and Jason Mohammad (17) tried to show some resistance but Mohammad Saifuddin, who returned to national colours after 10 months, dismissed both to leave the visitors stranded at 93-5 inside 36 overs.
Rovman Powell, who showed some resistance in the second ODI, also stood tall at Chattogram with a counter-attacking 47 off 49 balls but Soumya Sarkar ended his fight in the 41st over to squash any chance of West Indies pulling off a miraculous win.
West Indies innings folded shortly after Powell’s departure, which concluded a miserable tour for the West Indies ODI team.
Earlier, Bangladesh posted a strong total of 297-6 run after they were sent to bat first, where the four leading senior cricketers reached half-centuries; only the third instance of four Bangladesh batsmen scoring over 50 runs in an innings in ODI.
The same four cricketers earlier went past fifty runs against Scotland in the 2015 ICC World Cup at Nelson, New Zealand
Tamim, Mushfiq hit 64 runs each and Shakib put 51 runs before Mahmudullah’s unbeaten 64 runs from 43 balls took Bangladesh to a respectable total after wobbly start.
Liton Das, who had a run fest against Zimbabwe in the last international series for Bangladesh had a low key affair this time as he ended the ODI series with a duck after getting brisk starts in the first two ODI matches.
Nazmul Hossain, who was promoted up in the batting order, also failed to impress as he was also dismissed leg before wicket for only 20 runs.
Team management’s experiment of sending Soumya Sarkar at number seven also did not work as the left-hander were run out for only seven runs.
Tamim Iqbal, who won his first series as ODI captain, told the media in the presentation ceremony that despite some shortcomings he is very happy with the result.
‘I must say I am 80-85 per cent happy. Today [Monday] one of our top batters should get a hundred, maybe that is one thing badly wanted as a captain. In the first two matches, we should have won by seven or eight wickets as the target were very small,’ Tamim said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
