West Indies seek to consolidate lead

Overview

West Indies v Bangladesh
2nd Match
Clontarf Cricket Club, Dublin
Tuesday, 7 May; 10:45am local time, 9:45am GMT

The last time these two teams met, Bangladesh won the bilateral one-day international series 2-1 in December 2018.****Since the start of 2019, however, West Indies have been in a different form altogether.

After levelling the five-match one-day international series against England 2-2, they enjoyed a strong start to the tri-nation tournament and decimated the hosts with ease – openers Shai Hope and John Campbell setting up the 196-run win with a record opening stand. While they are not playing their full-strength side, the form of their bench strength bodes well for the upcoming ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019.

On the other hand, Bangladesh are coming from a 0-3 ODI series loss against New Zealand. They were the better team when they faced West Indies last year but replicating that success will not be easy against a confident opposition.They are playing the same squad they will be taking to the World Cup with two additional names – off-spinner Nayeem Hasan and right-handed batsman Yasir Ali. Both youngsters have been performing well in domestic cricket and provide the Asian team with extra options.

Key players:

Shai Hope (West Indies): The brilliant opener was in beast mode when he took guard against Ireland on Sunday. Hope smashed a 152-ball 170, his highest ODI score and shared a record 365-run opening stand with John Campbell. He was also the top run-scorer for Windies in the bilateral ODI series against Bangladesh in December and scored close to 300 runs. Hope has an average of 98 against Bangladesh and he will look to ride on those numbers when he faces them on Tuesday.

Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh): Having played only three ODIs in 2019 so far, Tamim's numbers don't to justice to his calibre. He had a string on single digit scores in the bilateral series against New Zealand but had scored the maximum runs for Bangladesh against West Indies in the December series. With the World Cup less than a month away, the veteran opener will want to get some runs under his belt.

Conditions

It's cold, it's cloudy and there is a ~50% chance of rain in morning and mid-afternoon. The cloud cover might compel the team winning the toss to bowl first. But that ploy didn't go to well in the first match when Ireland put West Indies in to bat. The last ODI Bangladesh played here was in May 2017, in which they comfortably chased the 270 set by New Zealand.

Squads

West Indies: Jason Holder (c), Fabian Allen, Sunil Ambris, Darren Bravo, John Campbell, Jonathan Carter, Roston Chase, Sheldon Cottrell, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Shai Hope, Ashley Nurse, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach

Bangladesh: Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (c), Liton Das,****Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Saifuddin, Abu Jayed Rahi, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Yasir Ali, Nayeem Hasan