Twin-ton Tamim Iqbal charges up batsmen’s table

Iqbal was outstanding. He scored 130* and 103 in the first and third ODIs, both of which Bangladesh won, and hit 54 in a losing cause in the second game to aggregate 287. That made him the Player of the Series too, and gave him a career-high 737 points and the No.13 spot in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings for batsmen.

It’s a rise of four spots for Iqbal, who has now taken his century tally in ODIs to 11.

“I think the patience that I showed in the first, second and third match makes me happy as it proved that my hard work paid off,” said Iqbal after the series, referring to the 160, 85 and 124 balls he faced in the three innings – in the first, he batted right through the innings.

Iqbal wasn’t the only Bangladeshi on the move.

Shakib Al Hasan, the talismanic all-rounder, had a good series too, with scores of 97, 56 and 37, and two wickets in the second game. That helped him move up three places to 26th among batsmen, and though he lost three spots in the bowlers’ table, he remained the top-ranked ODI all-rounder.

Of the other prominent scorers in the series for Bangladesh, Mahmudullah gained four positions to get to No.38 – his 49-ball 67* also gave him a career-high 575 points – but, interestingly, Mushfiqur Rahim dropped a spot to 22nd despite a rapid 30 in the first game and a 67-ball 68 in the second.

Mashrafe Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman were Bangladesh’s best bowlers in the Caribbean. Mortaza was the series topper in terms of wickets, with seven including 4/37 in the first match, and rose eight spots to be joint 19th with Matt Henry of New Zealand. Rahman earned a career-best 610 points earlier in the series before ending with 609 points and the No.17 spot, a gain of two spots.

From the Windies side, the star performer with the bat was undoubtedly Shimron Hetmyer.

Hetmyer hit 207 runs with a sequence of 52, 125 and 30, and moved up a stunning 77 positions to settle at the 59th spot. After the match-winning century in Providence, he had reached 528 points, his best in a short career so far, before losing some points following the series decider.

The last game was a high-scoring one, with Bangladesh putting up 301/6, and the Windies were then in hot pursuit before stopping at 283/6.

Chris Gayle and Rovman Powell were the heroes of their chase, and the batsmen’s table put them at No.66 (up 12 spots) and No.92 (up 16 spots) respectively.

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