Bangladesh win easy
A Mushfiqur Rahim fifty and great bowling by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman helped Bangladesh easily beat West Indies by five wickets in the first ODI on Sunday.
The hosts were set a target of 196 to win the game, and the batsmen played their part to ensure the Tigers remain in winning ways.
Chasing 196, openers Liton Das and Tamim Iqbal (12) made 37 in the first wicket before Roston Chase removed the former thanks to a Devendra Bishoo catch. Oshane Thomas bowled Imrul Kayes (4) four balls later to cause a little problem, but Liton and Mushfiq made 47 in the third wicket to set the platform for the win.
Liton was bowled on 41, made with five fours, by Keemo Paul. Mushfiq and Shakib Al Hasan (30) now added 57 in the fourth wicket to take the team closer to the win, which came with almost 15 overs to play.
Soumya Sarkar and Mahmudullah contributed 19 and 14 respectively. Mushfiq's 55 came in 70 balls, thanks to five fours.
Winning the toss, the visitors had opted to bat first, but they were clueless in front of tight Bangladesh bowling, as skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza tormented the top order while Mustafizur Rahman ploughed through the lower order.
All the visitors could manage was 195 for 9 in their stipulated 50 overs and barring Shai Hope's 43 off 59 balls, they would have faced a bigger embarrassment.
Opener Kieran Powell scored 10 in 27 balls while Darren Bravo made 19 playing 51 deliveries, both recording a strike rate of just over 37, something very unusual for an ODI.
Shakib Al Hasan gave the Tigers the breakthrough when he removed Powell while Hope and Bravo fell to Mashrafe.
In fact, the visitors did not look likely to get close to 200, but Chase's 32 and Keemo Paul's 36 off 28 balls saved their blushes.
Marlon Samuels added 25.
Mashrafe and Mustafiz bagged three wickets each while Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rubel Hossain and Shakib netted one apiece.
Miraz claimed the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer for the fifth time in this tour, after getting him in both the innings of both the Tests.
Mashrafe was playing his 200th ODI game, his 198 appearances came for Bangladesh while the pacer played two for Asia XI. And he marked it in style, being named the 'Man of the Match'.
Bangladesh will be relaxed before the second ODI to be played on Tuesday while the visitors toil hard to find a road back to victory after losing both the Tests and now the first ODI.