In the 23rd match of the ICC World Cup 2019, Bangladesh faced West Indies at The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton and we saw one of the best performances from Bangla Tigers after their fireworks in 2015 World Cup.
Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and chose to field first. Mohammad Saifuddin (3/72) gave them an early present, as he sent back Chris Gayle for a duck. But then Shai Hope (96) and Evin Lewis (70) added 116 runs for the second wicket and then Shimron Hetmyer made 50 in just 26 balls, with Jason Holder making 33 in 15 balls. Just when West Indies was looking for a score of over 350, Mustafizur (3/59) along with Shakib (2/54) contained them to 321/8 in 50 overs.
Bangladesh started their chase well with Soumya Sarkar (26) and Tamim Iqbal (48) added 52 runs for the first wicket. After they were dismissed and Mushfiqur Rahim fell for 1, there was some hope for the West Indies team, but Shakib-Al-Hasan and Liton Das, in his World Cup debut match, thumped them in a brilliant display of batsmanship, as the duo added 189* runs.
Shakib remained unbeaten on 124 off 99 balls with 16 fours and Liton made 94* in 69 balls with 8 fours and 4 sixes. Bangladesh created history with this 7-wicket win as they defeated West Indies for the first time in World Cups.
The cricket fraternity lauded the Bangladeshi team and Shakib Al Hasan for this amazing victory on Twitter.
Here are some tweets:
