Brilliant Hope levels ODI series for West Indies

SH AI Hope smashed a br i l lia nt centur y as West Indies edged Bangladesh by four wickets in t he second one-day internationa l to level the three-match series 1-1 in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Opener Hope hit an unbeaten 146 off 144 ba l ls, g uidi ng West Indies to 256-6 i n 49.4 overs after t he v isitors relied on t hree wickets f rom paceman Osha ne Thomas to rest r ict Bangladesh to 255-7 in 50 overs.

Hope shared 71-run in an unbroken seventh wicket stand with Keemo Paul to help West Indies get t heir f irst v ictor y on t he tour and stay a live in t he series af ter t hey suf fered a five-wicket loss in the opening match on Sunday.

Paul, who remained unbeaten on 18, pushed spinner Mahmudullah towards midwicket to complete the victor y. The fate of the game was ha ng i ng i n t he ba la nce unt i l Hope st r uck three fours off pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman in the penultimate over.

Hope, who has now three centuries in ODIs, hit 12 fours and t hree si xes in his innings.

“I just kept backing myself and knew that as long as I bat till t he end, we will win. I asked Keemo to bat deep. It wasn’t an easy wicket in t he beg i n n i ng,” man of t he match Hope said.

Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur claimed two wickets each for Bangladesh giv ing away 57 and 63 runs respectively.

Sha k ib A l Hasa n, Mushf iqur Ra him a nd Tamim Iqba l earlier each scored a half-centur y to steer Bangladesh to a decent tota l at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

Shakib top-scored wit h 65 of off f 62 deliveries while Mushfiqur and Tamim m made 62 and 50 respectively af ter West Indies dies invited t he hosts to bat f irst.

Mushfiqur and Tamim laid the foundation of t he innings wit h a 111-run 1-run second wicket stand after Oshane e Thomas worked up l ively pace ea rly l y i n t he innings.

Thomas, who returned with h bowling f ig ures of 3-54, forced opener er Liton Das to leave t he f ield wit h a toe oe injur y before ha nding Imrul Kayes ayes a duck for West Indies’ f irst brea rea kthrough.

Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo oo dismissed Tamim, who faced ed

63 balls, to brea k his partner- r- ship with M Mushfiqur, who soon became the t he sec second v ictim of Thomas. Shakib, Sh who smashed si x fours and a si x, then guided the lower-order erto give Bangladesh a competitive co score.

But Bu i t pr ov e d not enough. enou

“It wa was a 50-50 match in the end, but we couldn’t cou hold onto the pressure. It was a good match. Hopefully we’ll come back b strong in the next game,” said Bangladesh B captain Mashrafe Mortaza. Morta

T he t h i rd a nd f i na l one day internationa intern l of t he series will be held a at Sylhet International Cricket Sta Stadium on Friday. t o b e