Bangladesh seal T20 series
Scoreboard Tigers clinch 19-run victory over Windies
Players of the Bangladesh team pose with the trophy after Bangladesh defeated the West Indies in a Twenty20 international cricket match on Aug 6, in Lauderhill, Fla. Bangladesh won by 19 runs to clinch the series. (AP) LAUDERHILL, United States, Aug 6, (AFP): Bangladesh withstood a withering assault from Andre Russell to complete a series-clinching 19-run victory on the DLS Method over the West Indies in the rain-affected deciding final fixture of their three-match T20 International Series on Sunday.
Russell smashed 47 off just 21 deliveries with six towering sixes and one four to keep the Caribbean side in with a chance of surpassing experienced and prolific opening partner, Tamim Iqbal, in an opening stand of 61 off just 4.4 overs.
Along the way the pair registered the fastest-ever fifty by Bangladesh in T20 International cricket off only 21 deliveries as they tore into the spin of Samuel Badree and Ashley Nurse before also putting the pace of Russell to the sword.
It took the introduction of captain Carlos Brathwaite to engineer the breakthrough when he had Tamim caught at short fine-leg for 21 while Keemo Paul removed Soumya Sarkar cheaply for the second consecutive match to pull the West Indies back into contention.
Brathwaite also accounted for Mushfiqur Rahim while Kesrick Williams ended the rampaging knock of Liton as the Bangladesh innings stuttered when it seemed a total in excess of 200 was assured.
However an unbeaten 32 from Mahmudullah and an unbroken 38-run sixth-wicket stand with Ariful Haque ensured that Bangladesh got up to a competitive total.
West Indies replaced out-of-form opener Evin Lewis with the hard-hitting Chadwick Walton at the top of the order in their only change for this match but it failed to have the desired effect.
Walton and opening partner Andre Fletcher fell cheaply, as did the experienced Marlon Samuels, who was bowled by a shooter from Shakib.