Chris Gayle slammed a blistering century as title-holders the West Indies advanced to the Super Eight stage of the Champions Trophy in style. The defending champions crushed a hapless Bangladesh by 10 wickets in a qualifying round clash in Jaipur on Wednesday.
Left-handed opener Gayle hit an unbeaten 104 to see the West Indies cruise past a meagre Bangladesh target of 162 with more than 13 overs to spare in the day-night encounter at the Sawai Mansingh stadium.
It was Gayle's 13th one-day hundred, and was studded with 11 fours and three sixes.
The Jamaican, playing in his 145th match, made a composed start before launching into the minnows' bowling. After reaching the fifty-mark, Gayle waded into the opposition attack, lifting two sixes off Mohammad Rafique in successive overs, and then one more of Aftab Ahmed which disappeared out of the ground.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul played the supporting cast with 52 not out in the unbroken opening stand that rounded a perfect day at office for the champions.
The result saw Bangladesh go out of the reckoning while also confirming Sri Lanka's entry into the second stage of the competition.
The Lankans, like the West Indies, have two wins from as many matches, but an upset win by Bangladesh on Wednesday could have made a three-way tie a possibility.
Earlier, Bangladesh failed to capitalise on a solid start from Aftab Ahmed and were bowled out for a paltry 161. Bangladesh slipped from 95 for 1 and were dismissed in 46.3 overs.
Ahmed scored a scintillating half-century, but saw his knock go in vain as Bangladesh suffered a typical batting collapse on a featherbed of a track.
The right-hand batsman, who turns 21 in a month's time, played a courageous knock of 59 from 55 balls, creaming the West Indian pacers, Jerome Taylor in particular. His innings included seven fours and two sixes.
Opening batsman Shahriar Nafees was the only other batsman to make a significant contribution. He scored 38 and was involved an 85-run stand with Aftab for the second wicket.
Dwayne Bravo claimed three wickets for 14 runs while Corey Collymore and Marlon Samuels grabbed two wickets each to script the West Indies' revival after Taylor, who also took two wickets, and Ian Bradshaw failed to put the brakes on Bangladesh.
Electing to bat, Bangladesh showed positive intent with Nafees driving Taylor to point boundary off the first ball of the match. The decision to experiment with Mohammad Ashraful opening once again failed as the right-hander fell leg before to Taylor in the fifth over.
But Nafees and Aftab took advantage of the perfect batting conditions, showing a good sense of shot selection.
The Chittagong-born Aftab was the dominant partner. He punished Taylor, who tried to bounce him out, with a few cavalier shots on the on-side.
To be fair to the Jamaican fast bowler, Aftab very much succumbed to the leg-side trap when his hook shot went straight to Samuels at fine leg, but the fielder made a complete mess of it and the ball slipped through his hands to the boundary.
The batsman was on 15 then and had just crashed Taylor to the midwicket fence twice in that over.
The reprieve did not deter him. If anything, Aftab seemed to become more enterprising. A hook off a searing bouncer landed over the ropes behind, but the shot of his innings came against Bradshaw, who he flicked to backward square-leg for a stunning six.
The partnership was broken when Nafees holed out Gayle off Samuels in the 20th over.
Collymore then had Saqibul Hasan and skipper Habibul Bashar, both without opening their account, off successive balls in the next over.
The captain had been dismissed for a two-ball nought in the first match against Sri Lanka.
Aftab's own innings came to an end three overs later when he found Shivnarine Chanderpaul at long leg while trying to hit Samuels through the line.
The rest of the innings crumbled like a pack of cards with Khaled Mashud being the only batsman offering a semblance resistance to remain unbeaten on 22.
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