Canny Kapali fails to stave off defeat

West Indies are on a roll, winning their second ODI series in the space of ten days. After pulling off a sensational 4-3 series win over India on 24th November, they cruised to a 2-0 series win over Bangladesh at Dhaka on Tuesday.

Vasbert Drakes was the chief architect of the 86-runs victory, claiming four Bangladesh wickets for the third game in a row, as Bangladesh were bowled out for 195. Drakes won the Man-of-the-Match and Man-of-the-Series award for his sterling bowling performance in this three-match series.

Drakes returned with the enviable figures of (8-2-27-4), (9-4-18-4) and (10-1-33-4) on flat and docile tracks in Bangladesh, which hardly gave any assistance. In the final game of the series, Drakes was at his destructive best, claiming the first four wickets to send Bangladesh innings into a tail spin. Only a brave unbeaten knock of 89 from Alok Kapali helped Bangladesh to survive the full 50 overs.

Earlier in the day, Ridley Jacobs won the toss and decided to bat first. Even though Wavell Hinds (16) departed early - cleaned up by a Tapash Baisya yorker - Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels steadied the Windies innings by adding 108 runs for the second wicket.

Gayle rode his luck to make 73 off 90 balls, finding the rope 11 times. Samuels was watchful to start with, but played some rousing shots later on, lofting a couple of huge sixes. Gayle was finally caught behind off off-spinner Sanwar Hossain. Eight runs later with the score on 208, West Indies lost their fourth wicket when Samuels (77 off 101 balls) played a rash shot and was bowled by Mohammad Rafique.

Ramnaresh Sarwan (28 off 32 balls) lost his wicket trying to accelerate the scoring rate. Ricardo Powell played a little cameo, hitting a huge six and two fours in an unbeaten 36 off 28 balls. Jacobs made 23 off 20 before running himself out. Mahendra Nagamootoo (9*) struck a couple of boundaries, and West Indies finished at 281/5 in the allotted 50 overs.

Naimur Rahman (10-0-32-1) with his off-spin was the most economical Bangladesh bowler. The experienced left-arm seamer Manjural Islam was too expensive, with figures of 10-0-77-0.

Bangladesh were never really in the run chase as they lost their first four wickets with just 42 runs on the board in 13 overs. Drakes struck twice each in the 11th and 13th overs, getting rid of Ehsanul Haque (20), Mohammad Ashraful (1), Sanwar Hossain (5) and Tushar Imran (0).

Openers Anwar Hossain and Alok Kapali defied the West Indies bowling for a while, adding 67 runs for the fifth wicket partnership. Hossain (42 off 106 balls) then scooped a catch to Hinds at mid-on to give debutant Daren Powell his first ODI wicket.

Kapali kept fighting at one end as wickets tumbled at the other. Gayle picked up three quick wickets, including his 50th in ODIs. Kapali's brilliant unbeaten knock of 89 came off 93 balls, including ten glorious boundaries.

West Indies are hot favourites to win the first Test match to be played at Dhaka, which starts on Sunday.