The West Indies eased past Bangladesh after the tournament co-hosts posted a target of just 58 – their lowest ever one-day total.
Only two Bangladesh batsmen made it into double figures as the West Indies ran riot in Mirpur, reaching their target in just 12 overs with nine wickets to spare. Despite being overwhelming sports betting favourites, the West Indies would have expected more of a fight from a side who enhanced their reputation in defeat against India in the opening game of the tournament.
After dangerman Tamim Iqbal was removed without scoring, the Tigers always looked likely to struggle posting a large enough total to worry the West Indies as wickets continued to fall at regular intervals.
Sulieman Benn took four wickets as spin bowling continued to dominate the tournament, while Kemar Roach and Darren Sammy also took two wickets apiece as Bangladesh’s last 5 wickets fell for just 7 runs.
In contrast to Ireland’s remarkable win against England and Canada’s valiant effort against Pakistan yesterday, Bangladesh looked truly woeful, and the ICC may be forced to reduce the tournament even further after announcing that the 2015 tournament will only have ten teams involved, reduced from 14.
Chris Gayle scored his 8,000th run in one-day cricket and finished unbeaten on 35. Bangladesh did at least manage to take the wicket of Devon Smith, but in truth the match was a humiliation for Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan.
“I don’t know (what went wrong),” he said. “We have a lot of things to work on now. We have to sit down and think about it.
“Hopefully we’ll come back strongly as there are three more games. If we want to qualify for the second round, we have to win two out of three. It is still very much possible.”
We never thought we’d bat this poorly because we’ve been playing really good cricket for last the 12 months and we’ve been consistent with the bat “ he added.
The West Indies are now in a good position to progress past the group stages having recovered from defeat at the hands of South Africa in their opening game. They still have to play England and Ireland, but will be favourites amongst those who place sports bets to progress.
Gayle was pleased with his sides performance but insisted the job of qualifying was only half done. He said: “I think this win will take us to the quarter-final but we still can’t relax as we have couple of crucial games coming up.”