West Indies scraped their way to an unconvincing one-wicket win in the opening one-dayer against Bangladesh in St Vincent. After Bangladesh laboured their way to 144 for 8 from 50 overs, thanks mainly to a reviving stand of 62 between Khaled Mashud and Mohammad Rafique, West Indies made meal of knocking off the runs, and they only just made it. Play was delayed for 15 minutes after some overnight rain, but once the captains tossed, Ramnaresh Sarwan had no hesitation in putting Bangladesh in, and that paved the way for Tino Best to make a typically spectacular start to his one-day international career. Opening the bowling on his debut, Best took consecutive wickets with his 3rd and 4th balls, but missed out on the hat-trick. The two men to go were Shahriar Hossain, caught by Chris Gayle at first slip, and Habibul Bashar, the captain, who played a horrible swipe across the line to be trapped lbw. Manjural Islam Rana was lbw to Fidel Edwards in the following over, and Bangladesh had spluttered to 5 for 3. Rajin Saleh and Mohammad Ashraful then made a recovery of sorts, putting on 40 before Ashraful nicked Edwards to Ridley Jacobs for 17 (43 for 4), and Saleh was caught behind off Ian Bradshaw for 20 (51 for 5). Alok Kapali stuck around for a while until he was caught by Best off Bradshaw (52 for 6), and that set temporarily let the floodgates open again. Best returned to bowl, and he bounced out Mushfiqur Rahman, who fended a lifter to Sylvester Joseph in the slips (79 for 7). Khaled Mahmud was then beaten by pace, chopping Best onto his stumps for a duck. At that stage, Bangladesh were in all sorts of bother at 82 for 8, but Mashud and Rafique rescued them with their ninth-wicket partnership to give Bangladesh some respectability, and in the end, what turned out to be an almost winning score. Any West Indian hopes that Gayle would produce one of his whirlwind innings to wrap up the game quickly were dashed when he was caught behind off Tapash Baisya for a duck (7 for 1). Joseph, in at No. 3, didn't last long either as he was also caught by Mashud, off the bowling of Mahmud, for 7 (46 for 2). Shivnarine Chanderpaul couldn't impose any authority on the bowling either. He was trapped lbw by Manjural Islam Rana for 15 (81 for 3). Ricardo Powell was the only top-order batsman to master the bowling, scoring 52 runs from 64 balls, including six fours. But, just as he was looking to accelerate further, he was bowled by the impressive Mahmud (83 for 4). Sarwan played positively and temporarily eased West Indian nerves with two fours and a six, but Bangladesh refused to lie down, and he was caught by Rahman off Saleh for 22 (119 for 5). The wickets kept on coming. Dwayne Smith was stumped off Manjural for 2, Ridley Jacobs was run out by Manjural, and Dwayne Bravo was also caught short of his crease, all in the space of three overs. West Indies had sunk to 126 for 8 and the stroll to victory was threatening to go way of course. West Indies still required 19 for victory and with only two wickets left. Best was then lbw to Manjural playing across a straight one and Bangladesh sensed a famous victory. However, Bradshaw and Edwards kept their cool, and Bradshaw eased the tension with a six over midwicket off Saleh as he and Edwards scrambled home.