Taunton: Bangladesh powered to the second highest run chase in World Cup history as Shakib Al Hasan’s brilliant century clinched a remarkable seven-wicket win over the West Indies on Monday.
Shakib blasted 124 from 99 balls and Liton Das hit a superb 94 from 69 deliveries to lead Bangladesh to 322-3 with 8.3 overs to spare at Taunton.
Bangladesh’s highest one-day international run chase put them behind only Ireland’s 329-7 against England in 2011 in the history of successful World Cup chases.
Mashrafe Mortaza’s side remain in with a chance of reaching the semi-finals after their second win in five matches.
It was a brutal day for the West Indies, who were shambolic in the field and bowled far too loosely.
A third defeat from their five games means a semi-final berth is extremely unlikely as the optimism from the thrashing of Pakistan in their opener fades away.
The highest chase in the current World Cup prior to the masterclass from Mashrafe’s men was New Zealand’s 248 against Bangladesh.
But the Tigers had already posted 330 in the first innings of their win over South Africa earlier in the competition and they were never intimidated by their task against the Windies.
Opener Tamim Iqbal set the tone in the chase with six fours in his 53-ball innings of 48 before being superbly run out by Sheldon Cottrell.
Tamim and Soumya Sarkar had taken the score to 50 in the ninth over.
Soumya was dismissed for 29 when he scooped Andre Russell to Chris Gayle in the slips.
But there were huge cheers from the Bangladesh fans around the ground when Shakib became just the second player to score 6,000 career ODI runs for the Tigers.
