West Indies drop two straight games at Cricket World Cup

BY KAYLA KARIM

After a no result match that was rained out against South Africa, the West Indies tallied their third and most recent loss of the Cricket World Cup against Bangladesh.

West Indies played England on Friday, June 14^th with hopes to secure a win as they make their way to the semi-finals, but England had other plans. England finished with an eight-wicket victory over West Indies giving them two points. They managed to overhaul their target with almost 17 overs to spare.

Injuries plagued both of the teams in this match particularly for Windies, Andre Russell was shown hobbling off the field after completing his second over. Other players like Chris Gayle stepped up for Windies and was watchful against new balls striking two consecutive boundaries off Jofra Archer. On 15 Gayle swung at a full-length delivery from Woakes with a ball towards third man. England’s Mark Wood attempted to make the difficult catch but dropped it leaving a look of distraught on his face by the missed opportunity. Gayle took advantage of the emotions and struck for four and six from consecutive deliveries. However, it wasn’t enough of a run for West Indies to dominate. Gayle swung at another short ball, which was taken by Bairstow and Shai Hope fell two balls later.

The youngster West Indian batsmen, Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer gave some fans faith in their 89 run partnership. They initially had found it difficult to time the ball but Root was introduced and the Windies pair accelerated smoothly. Jason Holder continued with a straight six but that prompted Root to propel a cunning arm ball. Holder was able to give a simple return catch from the edge of his bat and the West Indies were never able to recover from the two unexpected setbacks eventually dropping the game.

On Monday, June 17^th, Shakib al Hasan led Bangladesh to a victory with innings of 124. With the target being 322, Bangladesh reached it with seven wickets and 8.3 overs to spare. The record-breaking performance resulted in Bangladesh’s highest successful run chase in ODI cricket with the second highest in World Cup history. With the win, Bangladesh pushed the West Indies close to elimination.

West Indies were comfortable posting 321-8 knowing that every team that had 300 plus batting first had won throughout this World Cup. However, the stat did not faze Shakib al Hasan and his Bangladesh team.

“No one felt that this was tough,” Shakib said of the mood between the innings. “Everyone was comfortable and was chilling. It gave a lot of confidence in the dressing room and belief that we could chase that.”

Lack of communication and focus in some moments of the match allowed Bangladesh to take advantage. As Shakib top-edged three times over the wicketkeeper he should have been out, but Shai Hope and Shannon Gabriel did not communicate, and both backed off as the ball fell between them. As a result, Shakib was able to pick apart West Indies attack with pulls and cuts off the back foot.

Other shots by Shakib and Das landed ear fielders who made little effort to go for them, the batsmen gradually stripping hope from the West Indies. The defeat added to Bangladesh’s list where they have topped West Indies seven of their last nine matches – the last four all from batting second.

Bangladesh recorded their second win in five matches at the World Cup lifting them into the top half of the standings meanwhile West Indies dropped to one win in five with difficult upcoming matches to advance to the semifinals for the first time in 23 years.