St. Vincent: Bangladesh registered their first T20I series win against West Indies after a prolonged gap of six years as they beat West Indies by 27 runs in the second T20I of the three-match series at Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown here on Wednesday, December 18, 2024. It's the first time for Bangladesh since 2018 against West Indies in this format. Bangladesh have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
It was pacer Taskin Ahmed who started and finished things off and won the low-scoring encounter for Bangladesh. Taskin started it off with 2 wickets in one over and then put the full stop on Windies' essay, taking the last wicket in the form of spin-bowling all-rounder Akeal Hosein. From there West Indies kept losing the wickets at regular intervals, with Roston Chase and Akeal Hosein showing some resistance from the hosts.
Windies were reeling at 32 for 4 after the powerplay with all top 4 batters returned to the pavilion. The fall of wickets didn't stop there as captain Rovamn Powell, who scored a fifty in the first T20I, failed to play the captain's innings and managed to add 6 runs off 7 balls to the total, followed by a hard-hitting all-rounder Romario Shepherd. The duo didn't receive much support in the end and Bangladesh kept their nerve when it threatened to get close to finish it off.
It was a collective bowling performance but it was Taskin who was the pick with a three-fer. It was not an easy wicket as there was bounce for the pacers and spin for the spinners but West Indies lost too many wickets in the powerplay, which has been a recurring issue for them in recent times in this format. This batting failure has cost them this series after successive failures with the bat.
Earlier in the match, it was a 13-ball 27 from Shamim Hossain in the first T20I and he's better than that, scoring 17-ball 35. If not for him, 129 looked like a dream. Before the ball started turning and bouncing, batting looked so tough. Bangladesh just couldn't get going in the first half but batting was a bit easier in the latter half after that break and Shamim batted exceptionally well again.
