A record second-wicket partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan set the foundation for the Bangladesh seamers to tear into to the West Indies and register a 48-run win in the first One Day International (ODI) at the National Stadium, Providence yesterday.
The double century stand between Iqbal and Al Hasan allowed Bangladesh to reach their highest ODI score against West Indies, 279-4 from their 50 overs before West Indies imploded reaching 231-9 off their allotted overs.
West Indies found early success after being asked to bowl with Jason Holder, who was getting the ball to shape away from the batsmen, finding the edge of Anamul Haque’s bat as he guided one into the safe hands of Ashley Nurse in slips.
Iqbal and Al Hasan then added 207 runs for the second wicket from 43 overs, the second highest partnership by Bangladesh and the fifth highest by any team against West Indies as the pair shepherded Bangladesh to a total which the Bangladesh captain, Mashrafe Mortaza commented as being “decent.”.
With West Indies overflowing in confidence after claiming their first wicket, the rain came to stop play for 27 minutes with Bangladesh 10-1 in the fifth over but when the covers were removed and the skies cleared, the two left-handed batsmen returned and both contributed 97 runs to the stand as they frustrated the Windies bowlers and silenced the small crowd with their ability to switch gears from rotating the strike and milking the bowling for singles to standing and hitting boundaries, ending the first powerplay with three boundaries off of Andre Russell to push the score to 31-1.
West Indies also contributed to the partnership, 
dropping each batsman twice. Iqbal was dropped on 17 and 20 by Nurse and Chris Gayle respectively while Al Hasan was dropped on 15 by Gayle all of which came inside four overs.
Al Hassan was again given another life, this time by Shimron Hetmyer on 85 as the pair moved on to make the highest partnership at Providence.
Iqbal and Al Hasan matched each other shot-for-shot with Iqbal depositing Nurse into the stands for the first six of the day and running one down the ground for two to bring up his 50, the team’s hundred and the century stand in the 26th over.
Al Hasan soon followed playing leg spinner Devendra Bishoo deep in the crease to find the boundary and bring up his 38th half century. The 31-year-old favoured part time spinner, Jason Mohammed as he carted him over his head and stepped aside to paddle him into the fence for back-to-back boundaries.
Heading into the back end of the innings, the pair targeted the West Indies
