West Indies had batted poorly against India in a seven-wicket defeat on Sunday. Their batsmen didn't look entirely convincing against Bangladesh either, but they scored 171, thanks to Dwayne Smith's 43-ball 72 and some amateurish work in the field.
The target proved well beyond the reach of the hosts, who were bowled out for 98. Dew, which had been a big factor in Mushfiqur Rahim sending West Indies in at the toss, barely played a role as Samuel Badree, Sunil Narine and Krishmar Santokie - a left-arm seamer by definition but a quickish left-arm spinner in reality - had no difficulty in gripping the ball in achieving figures of 12-0-49-8 between them.
Badree and Santokie sent back three of Bangladesh's most dangerous batsmen within first four overs. Tamim Iqbal went first, driving Badree uppishly to a diving Dwayne Bravo at mid-off. Bravo would later throw an even harsher light on the gulf between the two fielding sides by hurling himself to his right at point to grab a low one-handed catch and dismiss Mushfiqur.
Before that, though, Santokie struck twice in two balls with his slower offcutters. First, he spun it past the groping outside edge of the right-handed Anamul Haque for Denesh Ramdin to effect a brilliant stumping, then spun his next ball through the gate of the left-handed Shakib Al Hasan. Bangladesh were 16 for 3 in 3.2 overs and the match, as a contest, was over.
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Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur fought on for the next six overs, but the required rate was always running away from Bangladesh. Once the two were dismissed, Badree - who finished with four wickets - and the rest of West Indies' attack had no trouble running through the rest. In the end, the margin of victory reflected Bangladesh's inadequacies rather than anything spectacular from West Indies.
Having been sent in, West Indies, for most part, had struggled to put Bangladesh's bowlers away on a slow pitch. Smith, who had scratched his way to 11 off 29 balls against India, was in much better touch though, and provided West Indies impetus that they never lost despite their two best batsmen - Gayle and Marlon Samuels - facing 70 balls between them for 66.
Smith profited from some poor bowling, particularly from Sohag Gazi. Smith greeted the offspinner by sweeping him for two fours off his first two balls, both of which were directed towards leg stump, a dodgy idea with fine leg in the circle.
In the 10th over, Smith struck him for four successive fours. He manufactured the first - a reverse-sweep off a decent ball, but the next three came from ordinary deliveries that would have disappeared in any format of the game. The last of these, a flat-batted sweep, took Smith to 50. The landmark had come up in 34 balls.
Despite this, West Indies' run rate, at the end of the 10th over, was still under eight an over. At the other end, Gayle was playing a bizarre innings. It wasn't a surprise that he was slow off the blocks - he usually is before picking up the rate later. That simply didn't happen today. Part of this had to do with Gayle struggling to time the ball on a slow pitch, and part of it had to do with intent - unless the ball was in his hitting zone, he simply didn't go after it. He was slow between the wickets too, and appeared in some discomfort, suggesting he might not have been fully fit.
After Smith's dismissal in the 12th over, Mushfiqur brought on Shakib Al Hasan for the first time, and the left-arm spinner struck first ball getting Lendl Simmons stumped down the leg side as he went off on a strange wander out of the crease.
In came Samuels, who added 53 in 37 balls with Gayle even though neither batsman looked particularly threatening, as Bangladesh's fielding disintegrated despite two blinders from Tamim. Gayle went from 26 from 38 - at that point the second-slowest score of 25 or more in the history of international T20 - to 30 from 39 - the 14th slowest - courtesy Anamul's slippery fingers at long-on. In the next over, the 17th, Mushfiqur let successive deliveries from Shakib scoot between his legs for four byes. In the last two overs, Bangladesh also dropped three catches - Mahmudullah's two missed chances at long-off adding eight runs to Darren Sammy's score.
Al-Amin Hossain bowled a tight last over, picking up three wickets, but would have wished the spell had been part of a better team performance.
