Bangladesh national cricket team created history on Friday (May 17) at Dublin winning their maiden title in a multinational cricketing event beating West Indies by five wickets.
The Tigers chased a target of 210 runs in 24 overs, set following a DL method. West Indies, who batted first, scored 152 runs for one wicket in 24 overs. Bangladesh chased it down with seven balls to play.
Soumya Sarkar and Mosaddek Hossain hit the fifties to win the nail-biting game. Soumya fell for 66 off 41 with nine fours and three sixes, while Mosaddek remained unbeaten on 52 runs of 24 balls with two fours and five sixes.
While chasing the target, Bangladesh added 51 runs in five overs. The southpaw batsman Soumya was explosive at the start scoring of the first 51 runs. However, in the sixth over, Bangladesh lost Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman in quick successions.
Tamim fell while playing a short delivery of Shanon Gabriel. He skied the ball to mid-off, and Jason Holder took a regulation catch. In the same over, Shannon took up the wicket of Sabbir Rahman who had got a chance to bat at the top order in the absence of Shakib Al Hasan but failed to live up to the expectation.
At the other end, Soumya was continuing to score ample runs. He reached his fifty off 27 balls with eight fours and two sixes.
Bangladesh ended on 213 for five in 22.5 overs and sealed the game by five wickets. For West Indies, Shanon Gabriel and Raymon Reifer took two wickets each.
Earlier, West Indies’ innings was interrupted by rains. The rains washed away five hours from this match, and it was reduced to 24-overs-a-side match. Shai Hope (74) and Sunil Ambris (69) scored the fifties for them.
However, Bangladesh lost Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun in a span of nine runs. After losing five wickets in 143, Bangladesh needed 67 runs in 50 balls. Mahmudullah and Mosaddek reached the target in style. Along the way, Mossadek hit fifty off 20 balls, which is now Bangladesh’s fastest fifty in ODI cricket.
Bangladesh ended on 213 for five in 22.5 overs and sealed the game by five wickets.
The Tigers headed to the final beating West Indies twice, and they came up victorious against Ireland in their group stage matches. Mashrafe & Co. were far ahead of their opponents in this event in terms of playing better cricket.
Before Friday’s win, Bangladesh men's team played six finals in the last decade but failed to win any of them. Asia Cup 2018 was the last time they capitulated to India in the final. Before that, Bangladesh lost two finals of Asia Cup - one in 2012 against Pakistan and another against India in 2016.
Apart from these, team Bangladesh lost three tri-nation finals. Two of them were against Sri Lanka in 2009 and 2018, and the other one was against India in 2018 (Nidahas Trophy).
Bangladesh had taken this tri-nation series as their preparatory event before heading into the 2019 World Cup. Now, winning the title, Bangladesh announced they are all set to go to the World Cup in England and Wales.
