Cricket News: West Indies VS Bangladesh: West Indies seal the T20 series by 2-0
After sealing the series win in red-ball format, West Indies won the three-match T20I series by 2-0 and continued their domination in white ball. Nicholas Pooran and Kyle Mayers' powerful attack made the chase of a par score look very easy for West Indies
Nicholas Pooran: Awarded Player of the Match and Player of the series.Good batting by the visitors fell short of 15-20 runs
Litton Das and Anamul Haque gave an excellent start to Bangladesh's innings after they opted to bat first. The duo got 35-run in partnership, as visitors looked in better touch with the bat this time. However, Odean Smith and Romario Shepherd dismissed Anamul Haque and Shakib Al Hasan in two successive overs to get the breakthroughs. Litton Das found his lost touch and continued his knock with Atif Hossain to follow and build 57 runs together to steer the innings again. Litton Das fell short of 1 run for his half-century, whereas Atif Hossain reached his 50 in 38 balls. With not much contribution from batters to follow, Bangladesh posted a total of 163 in 20 overs.
Nicholas Pooran and Kyle Mayers match-winning partnership
The hosts, in response, had a very dicey start. Bangladesh had a bright start with their army of spinners as they took three wickets in 6.1 overs for a score of 43, leaving opener Kyle Mayers searching for a partnership. But they failed to carry on this tempo as skipper Nicholas Pooran then went on to build an 85-run stand off 51 balls with Kyle Mayers. Kyle Mayers lost his wicket to Nasum Ahmed at 55, but Nicholas Pooran remained unbeaten at 74, playing with a strike rate of 189.74 to seal the series win for West Indies. The team chased the total with five wickets and ten balls to spare.
Skipper Nicholas Pooran shined and was the Player of the Match and Player of the series for his clinical performance. In the post-match presentation, he said, "Definitely love Guyana. I am happy to have performed in front of this crowd. We would take two wins out of this series. We talked about positive intent. Kyle is growing in confidence. I am happy the way he played. We kept them under pressure. I asked my players to trust me. I try to stay ahead of the game. I thought it would move a little with the new ball and hence handed the new ball to Kyle. I just want the players to trust the process. I want the players to back their skills and use their ability."
West Indies will be highly confident after winning two series on the trot against Bangladesh. But now, a format change awaits both teams. The two teams will now lock horns for a three-match ODI series which will commence on 10 July 2022 at Providence. Hosts will look to continue their domination, whereas Bangladesh will look to change the stats and grab a lead in the ODI series.