In a game of great context, West Indies came out on top against Bangladesh on Friday to keep their semi-final hopes alive in the T20 World Cup 2021. The Calypso Kings won by just 3 runs in a tight contest in Sharjah that went to the last ball.
With their win in the virtual knock-out, the defending champions not only avoided elimination but also triggered a Super 12 exit for their Asian rivals. In an additional subplot, West Indies potentially also averted having to play the preliminary round of next year’s event in Australia.
As confirmed by ICC, the finalists of this T20 World Cup and the next six best-ranked sides as on November 15, 2021, will be making the Super 12 stage of the 2022 T20 World Cup directly. With this equation in mind, while seven spots seem almost secured, there is a three-way race among Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and West Indies to bag that final place available.
On the day, WI began precariously and looked like staring down the barrel but were eventually saved by some timely individual brilliance. Batting first, they found themselves 62/4 in just less than 13 overs on a slow surface and had next to no momentum in their innings.
This is when left-hander Nicholas Pooran came to his team’s rescue. The young gun played a vital knock of 40 off 22 balls, including four sixes, to propel West Indies past the 120-mark. Later, some timely hits from skipper Kieron Pollard (14*) and allrounder Jason Holder (15*) took the West Indies to a total of 142/7. Roston Chase made a painstaking 39 off 46 but in the context of the game, his innings was important to at least keep West Indies in the hunt.
On a slow surface, Bangladesh will be extremely disappointed to have let West Indies off the hook. They had the game under control for the majority of the first half but let it all go in the death overs. From being 84/4 at the end of the 15th over, West Indies scored a whopping 59 runs off the final five overs.
What would have also added to the bitter feeling for Bangladesh is the number of fielding errors they made. They dropped Chase twice and once missed an easy stumping down the leg against Pooran.
On the bowling front, left-arm speedster Mustafizur Rahman was a massive letdown for his team. Despite the surface being to his liking, he went for 43 off his four overs. Shakib Al Hasan bowled well in the early part of his spell, but he also gave away a couple of crucial sixes to Pooran to end with 0/28.
With West Indies getting around 10-15 runs more than they were once set for, Bangladeshi batters had to take more risks for scoring than they would’ve liked on a challenging wicket. This was especially difficult against Jason Holder (1/22), who could bang the ball in on an uneven deck from his high-arm release.
Mohammad Naim (17) and Shakib (9) failed to capitalise on the powerplay. Soumya Sarkar (17) and Mushfiqur Rahim (8) got starts but made nothing substantial. It required middle-order batter Liton Das (43) and skipper Mahmudullah (31*) to take Bangladesh close. But though they hit timely boundaries, the two batters could never really nail the game down in their team’s favour.
Liton, especially, missed out on a number of balls that he could’ve dispatched and eventually hauled out at long-on in the penultimate over. Bangladesh required 13 off the final over, but Mahmudullah could only get 9 of those runs against Andre Russell’s (1/29) excellent yorkers, leading to a painful three-run loss.
Akeal Hosein (1/24) and Ravi Rampaul (1/25) were the other heroes of the second half for the West Indies. Experienced Dwayne Bravo (1/36) had a couple of expensive overs but returned to bowl quite superbly at the death.
Brief scores
West Indies 142/7 in 20 overs (Pooran 40, Chase 39; Islam 2/20) beat Bangladesh 139/5 in 20 overs (Das 44, Mahmudullah 31; Holder 1/22) by 3 runs
