Captain Jason Mohammed believes the West Indies substitutes sent to tour Bangladesh were simply not up to the task as the visitors suffered a 120-run loss at Chattogram today. It was their third straight loss in the three-match series.
Chasing a target of 298, the West Indies were bowled out for 177 in 44.2 overs in yet another embarrassing display of batting when the team once again failed to surpass 200 runs.
Rovman Powell was the leading scorer with 47 while Nkrumah Bonner (31) and Raymon Reifer (27) offered next best efforts in the losing cause.
Mohammad Saifuddin took 3 for 51 and there were two wickets each for Mustafizur Rahman and Mehidy Hasan, who, between them gave up 42 runs from 16 overs.
“I think we were a bit far off in all three games,” said a frustrated Mohammed. “We bowled pretty ok, maybe 30 too much. And then our batting didn’t come up trumps. It was a bit challenging for us, the spinners were really challenging for us, especially in the first two games. I think that’s where we faltered a lot.
“It’s something that can be rectified, with our full-strength team, it’s a pretty good batting lineup. Once our main players are back, we can do pretty well at putting scores and chasing them.”
Anything over 200, however, would have been good enough for Bangladesh but identical scores of 64 from Captain Tamim Iqbal, Man-of-the-Match Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, who was unbeaten at the end, and 51 from Shakib al Hasan set Bangladesh on track to 297 for 6 from their 50 overs.
The home side lost two early wickets and was 38 for 2 after 8.4 overs but rebounded to post the match-winning total despite the best efforts of Alzarri Joseph (2 for 48), Reifer (2 for 61) and Kyle Mayers (1 for 34).
“Alzarri was very good, at the top. Akeal was also very good. I think the bowlers were very good,” said Mohammed, obviously wishing he could say the same for his batsmen. (www.sportsmax.tv)