West Indies beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in D/L method in the rain affected first T20I by taking 1-0 lead in the three-match series held on Wednesday at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts in West Indies.
Chasing a revised winning target of 91 runs due to rain, West Indies comfortably reached home making 93 for the loss of three wickets with 11 balls to spare.
Pacer Mustafizur Rahman struck early on West Indies innings sending back openers Andre Fletcher (7) and Evin Lewis (2) but Andre Russell and Marlon Samuels paired an important 42 runs third wicket stand to take the team to a comfortable position.
It was Samuels who made the task easy for West Indies smashing 13-ball of 26 hitting two boundaries and equal number of over boundaries before he was fell to Rubel Hossain.
After that Russell composed a magnificent unbeaten knock off 21-ball off 35 to take West Indies at home along with Rovman Powell who scored 15 runs.
Mustafizur Rahman made his comeback in a grand way as he captured two West Indies wicket conceding 18 runs while Rubel Hossain took one wickets for 13.
Earlier, despite a early batting jolt, Bangladesh regrouped themselves to post a decent total of 143 for 9 from their stipulated 20 overs after they were forced to bat first by West Indies.
Bangladesh suffered early batting jolt as they lost both their openers -Tamil Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar for duck.
Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan tried to revive the Bangladesh’s innings contributing 38 runs for the third wicket stand before West Indies all rounder Keemo Paul sent back to Liton Das for 24 runs.
Shakib also departed from the crease after scoring 10 ball off 19 runs, leaving Bangladesh in trouble. But, all rounder Mahmudullah kept his nerve cool helping Bangladesh to post a decent total of 143 for 9.
The all rounder Mahmudullah smashed 27-ball off 35 runs with the help of three boundaries and two over boundaries. Mushfiqur Rahim (15) and Ariful Haque (15) were the other notable for Bangladesh.
Kesrick Williams was the pick of West Indies bowler as he grabbed four Bangladesh’s wickets conceding 18 runs. He was well supported by Ashley Nurse and Keemo Paul who both captured Twp wickets each conceding 6 and 24 runs respectively.
The second T20I between the two sides will be held on August 5 at Lauderhill.
