With the ball, he’s already a name Bangladesh can rely on. But Rishad Hossain has also shown before that he’s more than capable of hitting big shots with the bat. Today, however, he displayed that ability better than ever — unleashing a 14-ball 39-run storm against the West Indies, breaking a 19-year-old record in the process.
In the previous match, Rishad had already hinted at his destructive batting, smashing 26 runs off 13 balls to help Bangladesh reach the 200-run mark. But today’s innings made that earlier knock look tame. If the first one was a “storm,” this one was a “cyclone.”
When Rishad came to the crease, Bangladesh was struggling at 163 for 7 with only four overs remaining. Even reaching 200 seemed like a distant dream. But Rishad’s “cyclone” changed everything.
He exploded in the last two overs, scoring 34 runs off them alone. He finished unbeaten on 39 runs off just 14 balls, hitting three sixes and three fours, with a strike rate of 278.57 — the highest strike rate ever by a Bangladeshi player in an ODI innings of at least 25 runs.
The previous record was held by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who set it in 2006 against Kenya in Bogura, when Bangladesh reached the 300-run mark in ODIs for the first time — thanks to his 16-ball 44-run blitz.
Eight years later, Shakib Al Hasan matched that record, scoring 44 off 16 balls against Pakistan in the Asia Cup.
Today, Rishad surpassed both Mashrafe and Shakib, breaking their long-standing record and giving Bangladesh a fighting total.
