BAS­SETERRE – Sher­fane Ruther­ford’s scin­til­lat­ing maid­en ODI cen­tu­ry pro­pelled West In­dies to a thrilling five-wick­et vic­to­ry over Bangladesh at Warn­er Park in St Kitts, snap­ping an 11-match los­ing streak against the vis­i­tors on Sun­day.

The hosts chased down a for­mi­da­ble 295-run tar­get with 14 balls to spare, to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match se­ries.

Ruther­ford’s 113 off 80 balls show­cased his pur­ple patch form, as his in­nings turned the tide af­ter a slug­gish start from the home side. Fac­ing a daunt­ing equa­tion of 161 runs need­ed off the fi­nal 114 balls, his ex­plo­sive in­nings, laced with sev­en fours and eight six­es, changed the game.

Aid­ed by over­throws, Ruther­ford reached his mile­stone in the 47th over. The Guyanese left-han­der even­tu­al­ly fell for 113, but by then, West In­dies re­quired just sev­en more runs to seal the con­test.

Cap­tain Shai Hope played a piv­otal role in sta­bi­liz­ing the in­nings af­ter West In­dies were re­duced to 27 for 2. Hope’s com­posed 86 off 88 balls and his 99-run fourth-wick­et part­ner­ship with Ruther­ford laid the foun­da­tion for the chase.

Ruther­ford then com­bined with Justin Greaves for a quick­fire 95-run stand, with Greaves re­main­ing un­beat­en on 41 off 31 balls.

The chase be­gan shak­i­ly, with Bran­don King (9) and Evin Lewis (16) falling ear­ly to Bangladesh’s pac­ers. A cau­tious 67-run stand be­tween Hope and Kea­cy Car­ty (21 off 37) stead­ied the in­nings, but the re­quired rate climbed to over eight an over be­fore Ruther­ford and Hope un­leashed a coun­ter­at­tack.

Ear­li­er, Bangladesh’s in­nings was an­chored by cap­tain Mehidy Hasan Mi­raz (74 off 101) and open­er Tanzid Hasan (60 off 60). Af­ter los­ing Soumya Sarkar (19) and Lit­ton Das (2) ear­ly, the pair added 79 for the third wick­et.

Tanzid played flu­ent­ly be­fore falling to Alzarri Joseph, while Mehidy’s grit­ty knock end­ed when he skied a catch off Jay­den Seales.

The in­nings gained mo­men­tum in the fi­nal overs, cour­tesy of a blis­ter­ing 96-run part­ner­ship be­tween Jak­er Ali (48 off 40) and Mah­mudul­lah (50 not out off 44). Mah­mudul­lah’s three six­es and Jak­er’s pow­er­ful hit­ting, in­clud­ing a mon­strous six off Joseph, helped Bangladesh add 84 runs in the last 10 overs.

Ro­mario Shep­herd was the pick of the bowlers for the re­gion­al side with three wick­ets for 51 runs, along with Joseph who picked up two wick­ets for 67 runs.

CMC

SUM­MARISED SCORES:

BANGLADESH 294-6 off 50 overs (Mehidy Hasan Mi­raz 74, Tanzid Hasan 60, Mah­mudul­lah 50 not out, Jak­er Ali 48 not out; Ro­mario Shep­herd 3-51, Alzarri Joseph 2-67, Jay­den Seales 1-63)

WEST IN­DIES 295-5 off 47.4 overs (Sher­fane Ruther­ford 113, Shai Hope 86, Justin Greaves 41 not out; Soumya Sarkar 1-24.

West In­dies won by five wick­ets.