• Source:JND
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Bangladesh clinched a thrilling seven-run victory over the West Indies in the first T20I at the Arnos Vale Ground, despite a valiant effort from Rovman Powell.

Hasan Mahmud was assigned the task of defending nine runs in the final over and coolly managed to put the West Indies in their place while Bangladesh scribbled up a hard-fought win.

Powell, on fire, lit up the Arnos Vale Ground with 60 runs in 35 blistering balls, crashing in four sixes and five fours. Despite such perfection by Powell, he failed to secure victory for his team as he was out in the last over, ending the chase short for the West Indies.

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Bangladesh made a terrible start to their innings after being asked to bat first. By the end of the Powerplay, the team was reeling at 30/3 from a sudden top-order collapse.

The breakdown started with opener Tanzid Hasan was dismissed for just 6 runs by Akeal Hosein, before adding to Bangladesh's woes by clean-bowling Litton Das for a duck.

The problems were only compounded further when Afif Hossain fell to Roston Chase, out after scoring just 8 runs from 11 balls, leaving Bangladesh with three wickets down in quick succession.

Saumya Sarkar and Jaker Ali built an important partnership, holding up the innings of Bangladesh through a 57-run partnership for the fourth wicket. The role played by Sarkar is significant, as he returned with a tally of 43 runs off just 32 balls, while Jaker chipped in with 27 runs off the same number of balls.

At the tail end of the innings, Mahedi continued with contributions from Shamim Hossain, who both ended on 27 runs each, and helped lift Bangladesh to a competitive total of 147 runs in the allocated 20 overs.

In the chase, It was going well for Bangladesh until the dramatic twist in the tale that had West Indies down at 61 in 12 overs with 7 wickets left. But the gloomy atmosphere lifted when captain Rovman Powell- his opening batting forays having unearthed the fire within with a safe four and a safer six—found a co-supporter in Romario Shepherd.

The revival of the West Indies drew pace as Rovman Powell and Romario Shepherd hoisted 15 off Rishad Hossain's 14 overs. The next over turned out to be the game-changer as Powell struck three sixes in one over that saw a whopping 23 runs against Taskin Ahmed. From then on, the required run rate, which had initially skyrocketed to over 11 runs per over was reduced to a very manageable eight runs per over.

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The 67-run stand between Shepherd and Powell was vital in reviving the otherwise fading hopes of a comeback for West Indies. Earlier, they turned in a grand total of 50 runs in that astonishing period between the 14th and 16th overs.

As the West Indies appeared to be gaining relevance, suddenly came a dramatic turn as Romario Shepherd fell for a catch at deep mid-wicket, effectively knocking him out of a significant partnership with Rovman Powell.

But Alzarri Joseph made a critical boundary to bring it down to 10 runs required from the last over. As the tension mounted, Hasan Mahmud kept his cool through the last over to finally give Bangladesh a very close victory.