Sherfane Rutherford’s maiden ODI century helped West Indies break their 11-match losing streak against Bangladesh with a five-wicket win in St Kitts. The home side hunted down a target of 295 to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, with Rutherford’s 80-ball 113 comprehensively overturning a slow start to the chase. West Indies, who had at one point needed 161 off 114 balls, reached their target with 14 balls remaining.

Rutherford, who was struck twice on his helmet during his innings, reached his century when Bangladesh conceded six runs via overthrows in the 47th over. He celebrated the milestone with consecutive sixes off Soumya Sarkar, over long-off and midwicket. Then he squeezed one to short third man where Nahid Rana completed a catch, but by then West Indies only needed seven more.

Rutherford struck seven fours and eight sixes as he went from 19 off 29 balls in the 32nd over to score a further 94 runs in 51 balls. He now has five consecutive 50-plus scores in ODIs, becoming the fourth West Indian after Gordon Greenidge, Chris Gayle and Shai Hope who have six in a row each, to achieve this feat.

Rutherford added 99 runs for the fourth wicket with captain Hope who contributed an 88-ball 86 after coming in at 27 for 2. Then Rutherford and Justin Graves blasted 95 runs off just 57 balls for the fifth wicket. Greaves scored the winning runs and finished on an unbeaten 41 off 31 balls with five fours.

West Indies were in trouble for much of the first half of their chase. They lost both Brandon King and Evin Lewis in the first powerplay and couldn’t get going against Bangladesh’s fast-bowling trio. Tanzim Hasan Sakib trapped King lbw for 9 off 17 when he tried to pull one that wasn’t short enough, and Nahid Rana struck Lewis’ back pad in front of the stumps with a 148.9 kph delivery in the next over It was then up to Hope and Keacy Carty to consolidate.

They added 67 runs in the following 13.3 overs for the third wicket, with Carty scoring a cautious 21 off 37 balls. Rishad Hossain’s short ball had him caught at short midwicket in a disappointing dismissal for the in-form West Indies batter.

The home side slowed down significantly during this third-wicket partnership, and the required rate reached eight an over with 21 overs remaining in the chase. That’s when Hope slammed his opposite number Mehidy Hassan Miraz down the ground for six. It broke a spell of 28 balls without a boundary.

That hit opened the floodgates as Rutherford struck Mehidy for a four and a six in the 32nd over, before driving Taskin for a boundary in the 33rd. Hope hammered Rishad down the ground for sixes in consecutive overs, and Rutherford, bothered by the short ball until this point, pulled Rana for a six in between. He reached his fifty in the 36th over.

Mehidy then gave Bangladesh a lifeline when he had Hope caught at deep midwicket, but the 99-run fourth wicket stand had already given West Indies much-needed impetus. Greaves then hit three fours in as many overs, and ensured he kept the momentum going.

Rutherford then upped the ante when he pulled Tanzim for his third six, following it up with his fourth in the following over off Mehidy. Rutherford reached his highest ODI score in the 43rd over, with twin sixes off Taskin. When Greaves carved Tanzim through the covers in the following over, West Indies’ required rate came down to a run a ball, with just 37 needed.

Bangladesh’s innings had also revolved around three significant partnerships. They got off to a quick start before Soumya Sarkar fell in the fifth over. Soumya, fresh from becoming the GSL’s Player of the Tournament, struck Alzarri Joseph for consecutive fours before falling caught behind later in the same over. Litton Das followed him shortly afterwards, getting caught behind to Romairo Shepherd.

Tanzid Hasan however had already struck a straight six and three fours. He added 79 runs for the third wicket captain Mehidy, who survived two chances, with Carty dropping him on 1 and 31. Mehidy rode his luck, top scoring with 74. Tanzid looked by far the more confident of the two, hitting two more sixes over long-off and finding boundaries all around the wicket.

Tanzid, however, fell against the run of play in the 24th over when Alzarri Joseph had him caught at point. He made a run-a-ball 60, walking off disappointed at missing out on a bigger score. Mehidy meanwhile continued to rotate the strike with the returning Afif Hossain. The fourth-wicket pair added 54 before Shepherd got Afif caught on the leg-side boundary.

Mehidy eventually made 74 off 101 balls, hitting six fours and a superb whipped six over fine-leg off Jayden Seales. He fell to the same bowler in the 38th over, skying to extra cover where Rutherford took the catch.

Mehidy had laid the perfect foundation for Jaker Ali and Mahmudullah who added 96 runs for the sixth wicket, 84 of which came in the last ten overs. Mahmudullah smashed three sixes on the leg side, and as many fours, in his unbeaten 50 off 44 balls.

Jaker also struck three sixes, one of them off Joseph landing outside the stadium’s premises. He made 48 off 40 balls, falling off the penultimate ball of the innings to Shepherd, who finished with three wickets. Jaker and Mahmudullah struck all their six sixes in the last 6.3 overs of Bangladesh’s innings.

Brief scores:
West Indies 295 for 5 in 47.4 overs  (Sherfane Rutherford 113, Shai Hope 86, Justin Greaves 41*) beat Bangladesh 294 for 6 in 50 overs (Mehidy Hasan Miraz 74, Tanzid Hasan 60, Mahmadullah 50*, Jaker Ali 48; Romairo Shepherd 3-51, Alzarri Joseph 2-67) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]

South Africa took major strides towards wrapping up a series whitewash on day four in Gqeberha, dismissing Sri Lanka’s top five after setting a mammoth 348 to win.

An unbroken 83-run stand between Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis has given Sri Lanka mild hope going into the final day. But they are still 143 runs shy, and are the last batters are shielding a particularly inept tail – Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, and Asitha Fernando all having been No. 11s in other Sri Lanka sides. To win, Sri Lanka would not only have to defy South Africa’s bowling with the second new ball (due in 28 overs), they’d also have to contend with morning conditions, which have tended to be trickier than afternoon or evening ones so far this Test.

Sri Lanka will perhaps, take some heart from their previous chase in Gqeberha , however, which came in 2019. On that occasion they had needed 137 to win overnight, with eight wickets in hand, and got to the target without losing a wicket the following morning. It had been Kusal who had led that chase. He and de Silva were both 39 not out at stumps here.

Keshav Maharaj, working now with a pitch that was taking some turn on the fourth afternoon, made the most critical strikes to the Sri Lanka chase. Angelo Mathews and Kamindu Mendis had struck up a 53-run stand, and had appeared to see off the worst of the seam-bowlers’ spells. But Maharaj slipped a straighter, flatter ball under Mathews’ big slog sweep to end the partnership, before, in his following over, he had Kamindu caught bat-pad by wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne, who dived desperately to get his glove under the dying chance. That double-strike had left Sri Lanka at a near-hopeless 122 for 5, until de Silva and Kusal defibrillated the innings.

Earlier, the quicks had dismissed Sri Lanka’s top three with the new ball. In the third over, Rabada rapped Dimuth Karunaratne in front of the stumps to dismiss him cheaply for the fourth time in the series. Pathum Nissanka, who had previously overturned an lbw call against him, nicked off driving at a full, wide, swinging delivery from Paterson, in the 13th over. Paterson would also dismiss Chandimal with an inducker, which Chandimal’s review suggested would have just grazed leg stump. He’d made 29 at that point.

Before that, it had been largely Sri Lanka’s day, as they claimed the seven remaining South Africa wickets for 126 runs. That they hung in the game was down largely to Prabath Jayasuriya,   who racked up his 10th five-wicket haul, and his first overseas, in the morning session. He had tangoed with the rough outside the right-hander’s leg stump during many of his 14 day-four overs, and for his excellent control and variety, claimed three wickets to finish with figures of 5 for 129. The frontline seamers took one day-four wicket apiece.

The most dramatic dismissal of the day was the first. Tristan Stubbs and overnight partner Temba Bavuma had begun the day brightly, and had extended their fourth-wicket stand to 103, when Bavuma clubbed a Lahiru Kumara ball to deep midwicket and took off for a tight two. Stubbs hesitated upon turning for the second however, and attempted to turn Bavuma back but did so too late. The pair were caught mid-pitch for long enough that Kumara could get back to the non-striker’s stumps and run Stubbs out with ease. He was out for 47.

Bavuma, who early in the day completed his fourth half-century of the series (one of these had also been a hundred), then put on a 41-run stand with David Bedingham, whom Sri Lanka tested with the short ball with a stacked legside field (he had been dropped twice trying to pull in the first innings). South Africa got through that period, but Bavuma could not defy Jayasuriya forever. He was bowled trying to sweep the spinner, the ball leaping out of the rough. With this 66, Bavuma has 327 runs for the series.

Bedingham batted with much more caution than he had displayed in the first innings but edged Jayasuriya to slip on 35, the ball once again kicking off the surface to take the outside edge. Jansen attempted to hit out against Jayasuriya, and was caught on the deep midwicket boundary.

South Africa’s tail made what may turn out to be crucial runs after lunch though, with Maharaj, Rabada and Paterson clubbing two sixes and five fours between them. The last two wickets had also been costly for Sri Lanka in the first innings, when the ninth and tenth-wicket partnerships were worth 89 put together.

Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 328 and 205 for 5 (Dhananjaya de Silva  39*, Kusal Mendis  39*;  Dane Paterson 2-33, Keshav Maharaj 2-62) need143 runs to beat South Africa 358 and 317 (Temba Bavuma 66, Aiden Markram 55;  Prabath Jayasuriya 5-129)

[Cricinfo]