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Pollard, Ramdin rescue troubled West Indies

Kieron Pollard (in pic) and Denesh Ramdin saved the West Indies from a humiliating defeat and engineered a three-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the first one-day international at the National Stadium.

Reeling at 34 for five in reply to the tourists’ total of 217 for nine, Pollard’s commanding 89 and Ramdin’s polished 74 turned the match on its head, their 145-run sixth-wicket partnership transforming the improbability of victory into a leisurely canter by the time the winning runs were hit by Jason Holder in the 40th over on Thursday.

They played positively and exposed the limitations of the Bangladeshi bowling attack as visiting captain Mushfiqur Rahim was at his wit’s end to stem the flow of runs following the early clatter of wickets. Medium-pacer Al-Amin Hossain emerged with the bowling honours, taking three of the first five wickets to fall and finishing with four for 51. He added the scalp of Pollard, who fell to an outstanding outfield catch by Mahmudullah as the big-hitting right-hander attempted to heave another six to take him closer to a hundred and his team nearer to victory.

Anamul Haque’s workmanlike hundred held the Bangladesh innings together as the visitors reached 217 for nine batting first. Put in on a pitch that made free scoring difficult, the opening batsman’s 109 was essential to giving the innings some respectability with more senior players in the batting order failing to contribute significantly. Fellow opener Tamim Iqbal and lower-order player Nasir Hossain were the next best contributors with 26 runs apiece.

BRIEFSCORES West Indies 219 for 7 (Pollard 89, Ramdin 74, Al-Amin 4-51) beat Bangladesh 217 for 9 (Anamul 109, Bravo 4-32) by three wickets.
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