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Bangladesh’s 11-match winning streak over the West Indies came to an end on Sunday when they were defeated by five wickets at Warner Park in St Kitts, in what captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz described as ‘a tough day for the bowlers.’

The visitors failed to defend 294 on a pretty good batting wicket as Sherfane Rutherford’s dream run continued in ODIs.

The left-hander now has five fifties and one century in just eight innings and five consecutive fifty-plus innings to his name. 

Mehidy, though, remained hopeful that they would make a comeback and win the series as the two teams face each other in the second ODI at the same venue at 7:30pm Bangladesh Standard time today. 

‘We’ll learn from so many things,’ said Mehidy after the first match. ‘We made some mistakes. We’ll just focus on how to get better in the next matches. We have two matches left, so I think we have a good chance.’

Mehidy’s team was in a solid position when the hosts lost two openers in the first 10 overs. Tanzim Hasan trapped Brandon King lbw while Nahid Rana did the same to Evin Lewis. 

The Caribbean team found themselves in a deeper hole when Keacy Carty was caught at midwicket off Rishad Hossain. Karty added 67 runs with his captain, Shai Hope. 

Hope and Rutherford then started to build the innings and took all the time. The required rate was climbing up as Bangladesh bowlers kept it tight. 

But Mehidy and Co failed to make an incision in that phase as Hope and Rutherford raised their tempo. Hope took 60 deliveries to reach his fifty but ended up with 86 off 88. 

Bangladesh got hope when Hope was caught at deep midwicket off Mehidy, but Rutherford was in his groove by that time.

He had 19 in the first 29 and then reached his fifty in 47. The left-hander then unleashed all fire as his last 63 came off in just 33. 

By the time Rutherford was dismissed after hitting seven fours and eight sixes, the West Indies were just seven runs away from ending the winless run against Bangladesh. 

Mehidy said that the lack of middle-over wickets cost them.

‘We started really well, especially Nahid, Taskin, and Tanzim Shakib; they bowled really well. But after that we didn’t bowl well in the middle overs; we didn’t get wickets. It can happen on this type of wicket. But still the wicket was looking good, and they played well,’ Mehidy added. 

Earlier, Bangladesh got to a fighting 294 thanks to fifties from opener Tanzid Hasan (60 off 60), Mehidy (74 off 101), and Mahmudullah (50 off 44). Jaker Ali also made a quickfire 48 off 40. 

After making a breezy start, Bangladesh lost opener Soumya Sarker and Liton Das in quick succession. Mehidy then added two fifty-partnerships with Tanzid and Afif Hossain before Mahmudullah and Jaker added 96 off 74. 

Mehidy batted with a strike rate of 73.26 while Bangladesh consumed 155 dot balls. But Mehidy later said that they should’ve defended 294. 

‘We were satisfied; 294 is a very good score on this kind of pitch,’ said the Bangladesh stand-in captain. 

‘Credit goes to them, especially Hope and Rutherford. They got a partnership in the middle over. We didn’t get wickets. I think it was a tough day for our bowlers.’