West Indies cricket team have claimed a heart-stopping victory in the second ODI against Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, with the fixture going into a Super Over. Bangladesh failed to get over the line despite scoring five runs off the first delivery of the Super over when they needed only six more.
West Indies became the first team in the ODI history to bowl all 50 overs of spin, keeping Bangladesh to 213/7. On a pitch that turned square fairly consistently, the hosts failed to get any real momentum going for themselves. Soumya Sarkar top-scored with 45, while Rishad Hossain's impetus of 39 off 14 deliveries towards the end was the real kicker for their side.
For the West Indies, Shai Hope held together West Indies' innings with an unbeaten 53 but kept running out of partners. It all came down to five needing off the final over as there were two dots, making it three runs required off the last ball and the West Indies managed only a couple. Bangladesh went on to bottle an easy win in the end despite scoring five runs off the first two balls of the Super Over. With three runs required for another super over, the Tigers managed only one as Akeal Hosein was successful.
"It was a new experience for us" - Mehidy Hasan Miraz
At the post-game presentation, Bangladesh skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz felt the wicket was far from easy to bat on and hailed Rishad's effort with both bat and ball.
"It was a new experience for us, the first-ever Super Over. I think it was not an easy surface to bat on. Rishad is doing very good at this moment. All batsmen were struggling but he was confident and batted really well."
When asked why he bowled Saif Hassan in the final over, Mehidy clarified they had no option to turn to and felt one boundary in the Super over would have tilted scales in their favour.
"We didn't have any other option. I was thinking if we could get another wicket... but we didn't get it. In the Super Over, we needed 10 [11] and one boundary could have changed things."
With the three-game series now levelled, the teams will fight it out in the same venue on Thursday in the final ODI.
