Be it known that Jason Holder is a brave man and one who believes in his own ability and is willing to lead from the front.
In front of a packed crowd at Providence in Guyana, Bangladesh was on the verge of sealing the ongoing one day series versus the Windies, by what looked like a comfortable margin.
However, young Kemo Paul, bowled an outstanding penultimate over, which not only went for a meagre 6 runs, but he picked up a crucial wicket with the final delivery.
That left set batsman Mushfiqur Rahim on 68, to take strike from the final over. He had batted well for his 68 and the Bangladeshi fans would have relaxed ‘knowing’ that he would take them home, with only 8 runs required from 6 legitimate deliveries.
But this funny old game of Cricket, never ceases to bemuse audiences around the world.
And so, Captain Jason Holder must have thought long and hard about who should bowl that final over.
Being the positive leader that he is, he opted to bowl it himself.
Mark you, up to that point, he had gone for 62 runs from his 9 overs, hardly a comforting thought, as he had gone at approximately 7 runs per over-wicketless and they required just 8 runs.
Well, he decided to take the bull by his horns and bowl himself.
He bowled a superlative final over. With the first ball, he had the set Rahim holing out in the deep, swinging at a full toss.
The next two balls were dots; the 4th ball went for 2 runs and so Bangladesh required 6 runs from 4 balls. The equation was still very much in their favour.
Ball five- a yorker gone wrong—full toss but drilled only to deep midwicket for a single.
Five runs required from the last ball and Bangladesh knew that one big swing could still do it.
The batsman swung at another yorker length delivery from Holder and only got as far as long-on.
West Indies had won and had levelled the series one-all.
Small wonder the Windies Captain let out a tremendous roar and then his team mates mobbed him…
When the Windies batted, the ultimate star was Shimron Hetmyer, the 20 year old Guyanese, who delighted the crowd with a sparkling century that belied his years. His knock included 3 fours and 7 sixes. He was helped in no small measure by all-rounder Rovman Powell, who teamed up with him to bring up a match winning stand of 103 runs.
Summarized scores: West Indies 271 (Hetmyer 125, Rubel 3-61) beat Bangladesh 268 for 6 (Mushfiqur 68, Shakib 56) by three runs