West Indies star Romario Shepherd’s hat-trick floors Bangladesh in 3rd T20I

Romario Shepherd takes hat-trick against Bangladesh. (Photo: X)

Bangladesh scored 151 runs against West Indies in the third and final Twenty20 International of the three-match series at the Bir Shreshtha Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Stadium in Chattogram on Friday.

Tanzid Hasan Tamim's outstanding knock of 89 off 62 balls, which included four sixes and nine fours, dominated Bangladesh's innings who had opted to bat.

Tanzid, who opened the innings with Emon, displayed maturity and restrained aggression despite wickets fell around him.

Following the early dismissals of Litton (6 off 9) and Emon (9 off 10), Tanzid and Saif Hassan (23 off 22) stabilized the innings, creating a vital 63-run partnership that aided Bangladesh's recovery in the middle overs. But in the later stages, the West Indies made a strong comeback. With 3/36, including a hat-trick that destroyed Bangladesh's lower order, Romario Shepherd was the star with the ball.

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In the final delivery of the 17th over, he removed Nurul Hasan Sohan, and on the first two balls of the 20th over, he removed Tanzid and Shoriful.

The visitors bowled out Bangladesh in the last over thanks to significant breakthroughs from Jason Holder (2-32) and Khary Pierre (2-23), as well as wickets from Akeal Hosein and Roston Chase.

With victories by 16 and 14 runs in the previous games played at the same venue, the visitors have already sealed the series 2-0. However, after winning the previous ODI series 2-1 in Mirpur, Bangladesh would be looking to end the series on a strong note.

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Romario Shepherd said after Bangladesh’s innings, “I didn’t actually know that I was on a hat-trick until I got the hat-trick, I was more focused on closing out the innings. Jason came out and told me that it was a hat-trick and told me to go for four wickets in four balls. (On getting the hat-trick by knocking the stumps over of the batter) When you’re a young fast bowler, you watch others knocking stumps over and you dream of doing the same. Feels good to finally join that club. It is a chaseable total but we don’t know how cricket goes, last time we defended 150, so you never know. Hopefully, we can turn things around this time, with the team batting first.”