Das Spearheads Bangladesh

Lauderhill (US), Aug 6 (AFP) A career-best innings from Liton Das highlighted Bangladesh's effort in reaching 184 for five batting first against the West Indies in the deciding final fixture of the three-match T20 International Series at the Central Broward Stadium in Florida.

Das set the tone at the top of the order for his team after captain Shakib al Hasan chose to bat first with a blistering innings of 61 off just 32 balls with six fours and three sixes.

He stole the show from his more experienced and prolific opening partner, Tamim Iqbal in an opening stand of 61 off just 4.4 overs.

Along the way the pair registered the fastest-ever fifty by Bangladesh in T20 International cricket off only 21 deliveries as they tore into the spin of Samuel Badree and Ashley Nurse before also putting the pace of Andre Russell to the sword.

It took the introduction of West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite himself to engineer the breakthrough when he had Tamim caught at short fine-leg for 21 while Keemo Paul removed Soumya Sarkar cheaply for the second consecutive match to pull the Caribbean team back into contention.

Brathwaite also accounted for Mushfiqur Rahim while Kesrick Williams ended the rampaging knock of Liton as the Bangladesh innings stuttered when it seemed a total in excess of 200 was assured.

However an unbeaten 32 from Mahmudullah and an unbroken 38-run sixth-wicket stand with Ariful Haque ensured that Bangladesh got up to a competitive total in pursuit of a series victory to follow the 2-1 triumph in the preceding One-Day International duel.

Bangladesh were unchanged from the team that levelled the contest with a 12-run win at the same venue in the second match on Saturday. West Indies replaced out-of-form opener Evin Lewis with the hard-hitting Chadwick Walton at the top of the order in their only change. (AFP) ATK

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