West Indies 142 for 7 (Pooran 40, Chase 39, Shoriful 2-20) beat Bangladesh 139 for 5 (Liton 44, Mahmudullah 31*) by three runs
Sharjah: West Indies picked up their first win while Bangladesh slipped to their third straight loss of the Super 12 stage at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021.
Liton Das and Mahmud Ullah led a spirited Bangladesh chase of 143, which left them needing 13 off the final over and four off the final ball. But Andre Russell drew on his experience to deny them as West Indies picked up a vital three-run win.
With this loss at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Bangladesh's hopes of progressing in the tournament look bleak.
West Indies had the power-hitting of Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder to thank for giving them those crucial runs on the board to defend. Their 142/7 had been an innings of two halves.
While their first 10 overs featured just two boundaries, both fours, their last 10 got them 94 runs, with seven sixes lighting up the final five.
In a tournament where teams chasing have been most successful so far, Bangladesh were quick to put the defending champions in to bat after winning the toss.
West Indies made changes to their stuttering batting line-up, dropping opener Lendl Simmons, pushing Chris Gayle back up to open and bringing in Roston Chase at No.3 for his T20I debut.
However, it didn't change their Powerplay fortunes.
Both openers fell early, as West Indies found themselves 18/2 in 4.2 overs, and could only get to 29/2 when the fielding restrictions were in place.
Evin Lewis tried to go leg side to Mustafizur Rahman, only to sky on and hand square leg a simple catch. The left-hander Gayle, who had survived a run-out chance, was then undone by the off-spin of Mahedi Hasan, edging onto his stumps.
Mahedi, who dropped a straightforward catch of Chase off his own bowling, had Shimron Hetmyer out the very next ball, caught a few metres from the straight boundary.
West Indies could only limp to 48/3 at the halfway stage.
Chase continued to anchor, but captain Kieron Pollard struggled to get going and retired hurt in the 13th over.
The West Indies' day went from bad to worse when Russell was run out in freakish fashion the very next ball, with Taskin Ahmed getting a toe to a Chase drive to deflect the ball onto the stumps and run Russell out at the non-striker's end without facing a single delivery.
But the deep batting line-up meant there was still hope for the West Indies, and it was Pooran who delivered the innings that his side desperately needed.
Coming in at No.7, he smashed four sixes in his 40 off just 22 deliveries, before falling to Shoriful Islam.
Holder, making his first appearance of the tournament after being drafted in as an injury replacement, kept the momentum up with a quickfire 15 off 5 at the end of the innings to keep the match competitive.