A confident Bangladesh side will face hosts West Indies as they look to clinch the One Day International series 2-0 at the Providence Stadium, Guyana on Wednesday.
Bangladesh won the first ODI at the same venue on Sunday by 48 runs. Opener Tamim Iqbal and number three batsman Shakib Al Hasan added 207 runs for the second wicket. That laid the foundation for Bangladesh as the Tigers posted a challenging total of 279 losing just four wickets. Mushfiqur Rahim played a blistering 30 run innings off just 11 balls to lift Bangladesh up to a match winning total.
Bangladesh beat the West Indies by 48 runs in Guyana after 130* by Tamim Iqbal and 4-37 from Mashrafe. SCORES: https://t.co/CwJvmFUO41 #WIvBAN pic.twitter.com/DKfPf5kfWC
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) July 22, 2018
Captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza praised the experienced duo and informed it was a team plan to bat out slower than usual in tough conditions to put up a challenging total.
"If they [Tamim and Shakib] didn't bat that way on that turning wicket, we would have ended up on around 220 runs," Mashrafe said to ESPN Cricinfo. "We wanted to ensure that we reached 250. They felt chasing at least 250 would be tough on this wicket. They didn't take up unnecessary time; they batted like the team had wanted them to bat.
"If their spinners took one or two wickets, we would have been in trouble. I think Shakib and Tamim batted really well."
Bangladesh beat West Indies by 48 runs in the first ODI. #BANvWI pic.twitter.com/S86CsCU3sx
— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) July 22, 2018
Mashrafe said he went into the game confident that a good innings from one of Bangladesh's batsmen would change the mood around the team. But he stressed that the freshly-gained confidence must translate into consistency.
"I was confident, but if we kept thinking about what happened so far on the tour, this win wouldn't have been possible. We should have shown this consistency much earlier. We now have to keep at it. I had confidence that a good innings or two would change the picture. We have a good enough bowling attack in ODIs to defend 280 runs."
The match will start at 12:30 am Bangladesh time.
