ST GEORGE'S- The Bangladesh bowlers maintained a stranglehold on the West Indies batsmen in the second ODI at St George's as the home side made 247 for 7 after they were put into bat on the same pitch as the first match two days ago.
Chris Gayle and Darren Bravo struck half centuries but West Indies may regret changing batting positions of Lendl Simmons and Denesh Ramdin as they failed to get the best out of both. Simmons struggled to put bat to ball, while Ramdin hardly made use of batting at No 4.
Mashrafe Mortaza took three wickets but it were the spinners - Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak and Sohag Gazi - who led the way. The trio shared just two wickets in 30 overs, but bowled tight lines and ensured the West Indies batsmen never got away.
For the second game in a row, Kirk Edwards missed a ball that tailed into his stumps. His bat came down diagonally and got him into a tangle. Al-Amin Hossain took advantage of Edwards' technical error, ripping up the off stump.
Chris Gayle was tied down for a while after the first wicket, but he broke free in the fifth over, hammering Mashrafe for a straight six before pulling Al-Amin over wide long-on in the next over. Darren Bravo at the other end took his time, and let Gayle take care of the scoring.
Sixes flew in, three more, as Gayle patiently waited for the Bangladesh bowlers to drop short or bowl full. Darren Bravo got just two boundaries during this time - one edged between first and third slip and the other glided through midwicket. Gayle scored three fours and four sixes as he moved to his first 50 since June last year. It was a stop-start innings, lacking the tempo associated with Gayle's innings of past. He was either picking up a boundary or a six, or nothing. He was soon dismissed though, thumping a long hop from Mahmudullah down midwicket's throat.
Darren Bravo continued to struggle but hit a straight six off Abdur Razzak, who was only introduced after Gayle was dismissed. Mushfiqur Rahim ensured Gayle and Bravo faced right-arm off-spin exclusively during their partnership, going with the trend among recent Bangladesh captains of only employing spinners who take the ball away from batsmen. Neither Mahmudullah nor Razzak disappointed their captain. The experienced left-arm spinner hardly gave anything away apart from the six, tying down Ramdin and Simmons. The fourth wicket partnership between the two batsmen brought West Indies just 27 runs in 7.3 overs, which also consumed 27 balls from the batting Powerplay. Only 21 runs came during the Powerplay.
Kieron Pollard couldn't repeat his first ODI heroics, but he did strike two fours and a six. It was not enough as Simmons continued to bat slowly at the other end. Pollard was furious with himself when he bottom-edged a short delivery from Mashrafe in the 47th over on to his stumps.
Simmons' struggled ended in the penultimate over when he jumped down the track for the umpteenth time but couldn't connect. He holed out to Mahmudullah at long-on. Bravo fell off the next ball to Mashrafe, giving the pace bowler a chance at a hat-trick. But Sunil Narine averted it.
Scoreboard
WEST INDIES:
C Gayle c Sohag b Mahmudullah 58
K Edwards b Al-Amin 0
Darren Bravo lbw b Sohag 53
D Ramdin c Mushfiqur b Al-Amin 34
L Simmons c Mahmudullah b Mashrafe 40
K Pollard b Mashrafe 26
Dwayne Bravo c Mushfiqur b Mashrafe 6
J Holder not out 8
S Narine not out 7
EXTRAS: (b1, lb2, w12) 15
TOTAL: (50 overs, 7 wickets) 247
FOW: 1-5, 2-93, 3-144, 4-171, 5-222, 6-231, 7-231
BOWLING: Mashrafe Mortaza 10-1-39-3, Al-Amin Hossain 10-1-60-2, Mahmudullah 10-0-47-1, Sohag Gazi 9-1-47-1, Nasir Hossain 1-0-8-0, Abdur Razzak 10-0-43-0
UMPIRES: Gregory Brathwaite (WIS), Aleem Dar (PAK)
TV UMPIRE: Richard Kettleborough (ENG)
MATCH REFEREE: Jeff Crowe (NZL)