Russell helped West Indies defend 12 runs in the final over after Pooran’s late exploits pushed them to 142

West Indies 142 for 7 (Pooran 40, Chase 39, Shoriful 2-20) beat Bangladesh 139 for 5 (Liton 44, Mahmudullah 31*, Holder 1-22) by three runs

A sloppy day in the field
Bangladesh missed four chances in the field today. Mahedi dropped Roston Chase twice, the first was off his own bowling in the seventh over when Chase chipped one towards him. In the 14th over, Mahedi then dropped him at the wide long-on boundary.

But what happened next ball really cost Bangladesh. Liton Das missed Pooran’s stumping when he was on 2. In the 19th over, Afif couldn’t hold on to Holder’s chance at the deep cover boundary, again costing Bangladesh some important runs.

West Indies too had a bad day in the field. They missed a few run-out chances and dropped three catches too.

An enforced gamble
Shakib pulled his hamstring as early as the fifth over of the match, but he plodded through most of the West Indies innings, bowling his full quota of four overs. The best time an injured Shakib could contribute with the bat was the powerplay, so Bangladesh did a slightly out-of-the-box move by sending him out to open the innings with Mohammad Naim. That did not work out well for Bangladesh, as Shakib could manage just 9 runs off 12 balls, getting out to Russell in the fifth over.

The scoop doesn’t work for Mushfiqur
The scoop shot hasn’t really worked for Mushfiqur Rahim, who has now got out twice, bowled while trying the shot in critical phases in the T20 World Cup. In this game, he missed the scoop off Rampaul who bowled straight on the stumps. It came shortly after Mushfiqur had struck a four with a superb square cut earlier in the over, but the dismissal left Bangladesh at 90 for 4 in the 14th over. Mushfiqur had similarly missed the scoop against Chris Greaves in Bangladesh’s first match against Scotland, getting out at a critical time in their chase – again shortly after he had started to connect the ball well.

Russell’s knockout blow
West Indies didn’t allow Bangladesh to get away with the game even with Mahmudullah and Liton threatening to do so at times. After Liton got out in the 19th over, Bangladesh were left with 13 needed off the last over. It was all set up well for Mahmudullah, but after getting the strike in the third delivery, he hardly got room to swing his arms. He even got a chance, with eight needed off three balls, when Andre Fletcher dropped him at deep square leg. Mahmudullah and Afif could only deal in twos, and with four needed off the last ball, Russell zoomed in another full ball which missed Mahmudullah’s flashing blade.