Bangladesh lost a last-ball thriller against West Indies by three runs in their third Group 1 game in the Super 12s of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Liton Das made 44 off 43 balls and Mahmudullah remained unbeaten on 31 off 24 balls but couldn’t finish the job as Bangladesh ended up on 139-5 in their 20 overs.
All five West Indies bowlers got one wicket each and it was Andre Russel who defended 13 runs in the 20th over to seal the win for the Caribbean side.
Earlier, Nicholas Pooran’s quickfire innings late down the order powered West Indies to 142-7 in 20 overs.
Shoriful Islam and Mahedi Hasan finished with 2-20 and 2-27 respectively while Taskin Ahmed conceded just 17 runs off his four overs.
The defeat ends Bangladesh’s chances of reaching the semi-finals while keeps the defending champions’ hopes alive of retaining their trophy.
Bangladesh matched West Indies’ powerplay score of 29-2 as they lost Shakib Al Hasan, who was promoted to the opening slot for the first time in T20Is and was visibly struggling with his hamstring, and Mohammad Naim for nine and 17 respectively.
Bangladesh reached 55-2 at the halfway spot but Liton and Soumya took 31 runs in the next three overs take the total to 86-3 after 13 overs.
Soumya then departed for 17 and Mushfiqur Rahim (nine) also departed cheaply after making a promising start.
Mahmudullah then joined Liton and the duo added 40 runs off 33 balls but the partnership ended when Liton’s attempt to slog Bravo for a six fell short and he was caught at the edge of the boundary by Holder.
Bangladesh needed 13 runs off the last six balls, which came down to eight from three balls before Mahmudullah got dropped a third man while trying to hit a six.
Mahmudullah took a couple of runs in the penultimate ball thanks to a misfield by Holder.
The skipper needed to his a boundary to win the match, but he couldn’t connect a well executed Yorker from Russell.
Opting to bowl first, the Bangladesh bowlers kept the explosive West Indies top-order quiet, keeping them to 29-2 after the powerplay overs.
The fielding, however, left much to be desired with Mahedi dropping Chase twice, first of his own bowling in the powerplay and then in the 14th over off Shakib, and Afif Hossain also dropped Jasn Holder off Shoriful in the final over.
Chase, who came to bat at three, held one end up while West Indies kept losing wickets in regular successions at the other end.
West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard left the field in the 13th over when he was batting on eight due to feeling ill and in the very next ball Chase’s straight drive ricocheted off Taskin’s foot and dislodged the stumps to run out Andre Russell without him even facing a ball.
Pooran then took on the Bangladesh bowlers and helped them score 72 off the final six overs.
Pooran could’ve been out for just two off Shakib but Liton Das, who kept the wickets in place of Nurul Hasan who had to miss the match due to an injury, missed the stumping chance.
Holder hit an unbeaten 15 off five balls and Pollard also returned to face the final two balls of the innings, and he ended their innings with a six.
