Sarwan's blazing effort shores up West Indies

Bridgetown, Barbados: Ramnaresh Sarwan boosted his chance of being appointed the next captain of the West Indies team through a blazing unbeaten 91 at the Kensington Oval.

West Indies recorded a challenging 230 for 5 after they had lost both their openers before the fourth over. Shivnarine Chanderpaul cracked a 50 while Brian Lara hit a quick 33 to pull West Indies out of the tight grip of the Bangladesh bowlers.

Bangladesh won the toss and promptly elected to field. West Indies lost both their openers quickly.

Smith bowled

Mashrafe Mortaza clean bowled Devon Smith with a delivery that came into the batsman. Syed Rasel, who returned from his injury and replaced Shahadat Hossain, trapped Chris Gayle leg before.

Rasel would have got another wicket too if Abdur Razzak at second slip had clung on to the catch from Marlon Samuels in the fifth over. Samuels quickly settled down and began to open out from the 13th over. He hit Rasel through mid on with enormous power.

Two overs later he hit Rasel for two consecutive boundaries. The first shot was played past backward point and second through the covers.

These two powerful shots may have reminded the fans of the good old days when their batsmen used to play such shots with ease. Chanderpaul provided good support to Samuels.

Bangladesh quickly introduced their spinners to check the run flow.