Shai Hope scored an excellent century to help the West Indies register a four-wicket win against Bangladesh in the second one-day international between the two sides in Dhaka on Tuesday to level the three-match series 1-1.
Hope who opened the innings for the Windies, smashed an unbeaten 146 off 144 deliveries in a knock comprising of twelve boundaries and three sixes, after being handed a target of 256 by the hosts.
The 25-year-old batsman further enjoyed quality support from tail-ender batsman Keemo Paul, with the duo stitching an unbroken 71-run partnership after being restricted to 185 for six at one stage.
Hope who has now accumulated three centuries in ODI cricket, described the wicket as difficult to bat on initially.
"I just kept backing myself and knew that as long as I bat till the end, we will win. I asked Keemo to bat deep. It wasn't an easy wicket in the beginning," said the opener.
Earlier Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan scored half-centuries respectively to steer Bangladesh to a decent total.
Shakib was the top-scorer, accumulating 65 runs off 62 deliveries. Mushfiqur and opener Tamim Iqbal further made their presence felt scoring 62 and 50 respectively after being sent in to bat first by the Windies.
However, they failed to cross the 300-run mark following an excellent spell by fast-bowler Oshane Thomas who returned bowling figures of 3-54.
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza blamed his side's inability to deliver the goods under pressure for the loss, despite posting a competitive total.
"It was a 50-50 match in the end, but we couldn't hold onto the pressure. It was a good match. Hopefully we'll come back strong in the next game," said Mortaza.
The final clash of the series will take place on 14 December.
