Coming into Saturday night’s fixture in Lauderhill, Bangladesh as a team had never played at the Central Broward Regional Park. The squad had been in discussions with the ICC and the USA Cricket to possibly organize a warm-up fixture against a USA XI, which fell apart at the last minute, as a means of hopefully getting to play at least one warm-up match on the ground to get a sense of how the wicket would play.
The lone player in their squad to have any kind of meaningful experience at this ground was Shakib Al Hasan, having played four times in Lauderhill for Jamaica Tallawahs in 2016 and 2017 during the Caribbean Premier League. His team-mates leaned on the captain for that invaluable local knowledge to help end West Indies’ unbeaten record at the venue. Player-of-the-Match Tamim Iqbal also credited Shakib for shifting the tide of the innings with his arrival to the crease.
“I think Shakib changed the momentum, to be very honest,” Tamim said in the post-match press conference after a tense 12-run win that was not decided until the final over. “As soon as he came in, he started to get the boundaries and I think that knock of his was special. Because we didn’t have flying first ten overs, his innings was something really important.”
Though West Indies produced their best-ever T20I score the last time they played a completed match at the venue in 2016 with 245 against India, 170-180 has been a typical first-innings score for matches played at Broward in the CPL over the last two seasons. Bangladesh looked like they’d struggle to achieve that when Soumya Sarkar fell at 48 for 3 in the eighth over before Shakib’s arrival spurred Tamim out of his shell in a 90-run stand.
The Bangladesh captain struck Keemo Paul over the off side twice to start the tenth over and got a stroke of luck in the 11th when he top-edged Kesrick Williams over the keeper for his third boundary. But he whipped the heavily partisan 7000-strong Bangladesh crowd into a frenzy with three more boundaries off Williams in the 13th over to provide the innings much-needed impetus.
“We always knew that we were capable of coming back and coming back strongly,” Tamim said. “After the first ten overs, we recovered really well and got the maximum runs that we could have scored. We knew they had got some serious power-hitters in the team, so we needed to keep on getting wickets and that’s exactly what happened.
“Sometimes 200 is not enough, sometimes 150 is enough. So we knew that we need to give our best. We need to field as best as we can and that’s what we did. I think every bowler did their job. Fizz was brilliant, Abu Hider was special. I think everybody did their job.”
A pivotal sequence happened in the 14th over when Tamim, on 47 with the score on 100, miscued a drive height off captain Carlos Brathwaite to mid-off where Rovman Powell shuffled right for a straightforward chance at waist but the ball popped out. Tamim brought up a 35-ball fifty in the following over before commencing a vicious onslaught on Andre Russell in an over that won the match for Bangladesh.
Tamim cleaned Russell over long-on for six to start the 16th, then went wider over cow corner for an even bigger hit two balls later for six more. A four smoked over mid-off up in the ring next ball was followed by a six pulled over deep square leg in a dizzying five-ball string of 22 runs before he fell trying to swat one more six over the leg side off the final ball. But the damage had been done. Brathwaite hinted at the miss earlier on Tamim in holding his side’s effort in the field accountable for the loss.
“We didn’t have the right attitude in the field,” Brathwaite told Cricket West Indies after the match. “I think we were a bit casual. We didn’t have the same intensity as the first game. I think due to our lapses in the field, we had to chase more than we wanted to.
“I guess it’s questionable if we should have batted or bowled first but I still think I made the right decision in sending them in to bat first. With the start that we had, I think we should have been chasing 150 and if we had been chasing that much, we would have gotten over the line.”
Bangladesh were not entirely perfect in the field either with two catches going down, but they balanced it out, thanks to a pair of sensational catches taken by Liton Das at deep midwicket. West Indies were way ahead of Bangladesh’s Powerplay rate at 48 for 2 in the fifth when Marlon Samuels slammed a drive quick and flat toward Liton on the boundary. He had little time to move, but judged the chance perfectly off the bat and covered about ten yards quickly before lunging forward late to snatch the low chance.
The second one came in the 17th. Brathwaite had ended the previous over with a six to take the equation down to 42 off the last four overs, easily manageable in Lauderhill when he slammed Shakib toward the east grandstand. Liton tracked 15 yards left for the chance as a team-mate from long-on hared right. Liton reached up for the chance and simultaneously avoided a nasty collision, maintaining his concentration to take the catch a yard inside the boundary rope.
What was especially impressive about both takes was that the floodlights at the Central Broward Regional Park are not especially bright. Two years ago, the CPL organizers had paid USD 250,000 to bring in supplemental floodlight fixtures on flatbed trucks to brighten the scene for matches played at night, but none of the six prior T20Is played at the venue had been prime-time fixtures due to concerns over the suitability of floodlights. But Tamim said his team had had no issues and are keen to come back on Sunday night for a chance at a Lauderhill sweep in the series decider.
“When we were sitting outside, we were feeling that maybe the light is not enough but when we were batting or fielding I thought the light was fine,” Tamim said. “I didn’t find anything wrong with it. I thought it’s completely fine and I think the ground is 100% ready for night games.
“T20 cricket, a lot depends on fielding as well. If somebody takes a brilliant catch or a brilliant run-out, that changes a lot of things. Liton Das took two quite brilliant catches. I think that was special as well.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo