Pollard, Ramdin snuff out Bangladesh’s hopes

West Indies have surged go 1-0 ahead in the three-match ODI series beating Bangladesh by three wickets in the rain-hit opener at the St George’s National Cricket Stadium in Grenada.

Denesh Ramdin and Kieron Pollard stitched together a magnificent 145-run stand for the sixth wicket as the hosts went on to make 219 for seven in Grenada on Wednesday.

Bangladesh posted a modest 217 for nine.

Hard-hitter Pollard and wicket-keeper batsman Ramdin took the Caribbeans out of the woods after their side were struggling at 34 for 5 in 13.1 overs.

Pollard scored a sublime 70-ball 89 and was well supported by Ramdin who added 74 off 76 deliveries.

Bangladesh’s hopes of pulling off an upset win were reignited when both of them fell in the 35th and 38th over to leave the side 17 runs shy.

But Jason Holder (22) held his nerve to steer the hosts home.

Al-Amin Hossain was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with 4/51 in 8.4 overs.

Rain had forced players off the field after West Indies recovered from a disastrous start.

Chris Gayle (3) was dismissed early and was followed by Darren Bravo (7). Kirk Edwards (10) and Lendl Simmons (0) fell in quick succession.

Skipper Dwayne Bravo fell for 5 to leave the West Indies in dire straits at 34/5 and Bangladesh sensing their first ODI victory in 2014.

Earlier, opener Anamul Haque hit his third ODI ton to lift Bangladesh to 217.

The 21-year-old was the only consistent batsman for the tourists with the 138-ball 109 knock.

He smashed 11 fours and a six on the way to his third limited-overs century.

Invited to bat first, Bangladesh batsmen struggled to settle in a foreign condition in which they played five years ago.

Anamul’s stand with another opener Tamim Iqbal lasted 12.1 overs and yielded only 41 runs.

Tamim was caught at short midwicket off a Jason Holder delivery for 26.

Imrul Kayes, Shamsur Rahman, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah then paired with Anamul respectively but failed to stay for long until Nasir Hossain came in.

The Nasir-Anamul pair added 53 runs before Nasir was gone for 26.

Anamul was trapped lbw by Dwayne Bravo in the last delivery of the innings.

Bravo was the strike bowler for the hosts with 4 for 32.