TAUNTON, Monday – Bangladesh’s world-class all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan struck his second century continuing Cricket World Cup and shared an enterprising fourth place stand of 189 off 135 balls with Liton Das to guide his squad to their historic largest run chase and a wonderful victory over West Indies by seven wickets on the County floor here on Monday.
Shakib played the anchor role beautifully as he figured in important partnerships for Bangladesh to successfully chase down West Indies score of 321-8 to win with 51 balls to spare by making 322 for three wickets.
Man of the Match Shakib’s century comes on the back of his 121 against England at Cardiff nine days ago. In the process of scoring his match-winning century 124 not out off 99 balls (16 fours), Shakib passed 6000 ODI runs for his country.
Das was equally brilliant taking over the main role from Shakib after his senior partner had reached his century to remain unbeaten on 94 scored off 69 balls with eight fours and four sixes.
The win placed Bangladesh up the World Cup standings to fifth in the table pushing Sri Lanka to sixth.
It was a crucial game for both teams and that Bangladesh came out on top was no surprise.
On a small ground where the margin for error for a bowler is so small, West Indies paid dearly for going into the match with very little variations in their bowling by including five fast bowlers and not a single spinner whereas in comparison Bangladesh played three.
