Windies sweep timid Tigers

West Indies’ Rahkeem Cornwall (on ground) takes a catch to dismiss Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan on the fourth day of their second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Sunday. — AFP photo

Sports Desk:

Bangladesh fell victim to its own spin trap as the West Indian spinners gobbled up all 10 wickets of the hosts’ second innings to give their side a 12-run win in the second Test of the two-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday.

With the win, West Indies took the series 2-0, handing Bangladesh its first clean-sweep in Tests since 2012, which also came against the Caribbean side.

Rahkeem Cornwall claimed four, to finish with 9-179 in the match and highest 14 wickets in the series, while skipper Kraigg Brathwaite and Jomel Warrican snapped three wickets each to bowl out Bangladesh for 213, chasing 232.

Mehidy Hasan, who has scored 198 runs and claimed 10 wickets in the series, took Bangladesh close to the target with his 31-run knock but couldn’t take them over the line.

Earlier, Bangladesh began the day on a positive note, with pacer Abu Jayed, who wasn’t given the ball at all the previous day, dismissing night-watchman Warrican (two) and the double centurion of the first Test Kyle Mayers (six) after the visitors began the day’s play on 41-3, leading by 154 runs.

Taijul, who bowled from one end throughout the morning session, then claimed only his second wicket from stumping in Test cricket to send back Jermoine Blackwood for nine to reduce the visitors to 73-6.

Overnight batsman Nkrumah Bonner (38) and Joshua Da Silva (20), who had made 90 and 92 respectively in the previous innings, then took West Indies safely to the Lunch break.

But after the interval, Bangladesh spinner took only 4.5 overs to clean up the West Indies innings for 117, with Taijul and Nayeem Hasan sharing the remaining four wickets.

Taijul finished with 4-36 in 21 overs while Nayeem took 3-34 to set up a 232-run target for the hosts with over one and a half days left.

Bangladesh looked on their way to complete what would have been the highest successful fourth innings chase at the ground, the highest being 209 by England against the hosts in 2010, when Tamim and Soumya formed a 59-run opening stand.

Both Tamim and Soumya were looking comfortable but opposition skipper Brathwaite put himself on the attack and dismissed the pair in consecutive overs to the turn the tide of the match.

Soumya tried to cut a short and wide delivery from Brathwaite but ended up nicking it to wicketkeeper Silva to depart for 13.

The on-field umpire initially gave not out but West Indies used one of their referrals to overturn the decision.

Tamim, who had raced to his 28th fifty in Tests in just 44 balls with nine fours, ended up giving an easy catch at short cover to Shayne Moseley off Brathwaite to walk back to the dressing room for 50.

Nazmul Hossain then became Cornwall’s first victim in the innings, getting dismissed for 11, and the experienced duo of Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul haque fell to left-arm spinner Warrican for 14 and 26 respectively.

Mohammad Mithun (10) also failed to justify his inclusion in the Test and it all came down to Liton Das and Mehidy, who had added 126 runs together in the previous innings to give Bangladesh’s total some respectability.

But Bangladesh’s hopes of winning the match took a serious blow when Liton got caught off Silva off Cornwall for 22 runs.

Mehidy remained solid at one end but none of the tail-enders could lend him support from the other end and at one point Bangladesh was reduced to 188-9, needing another 43 runs to win.

Mehidy, who was batting on six off 35 balls, then decided to take the attack to the opposition and smashed three fours and two sixes off Cornwall to bring Bangladesh close to the target.

He was inching closer to pulling off a memorable win but in the end his efforts went in vain as he edged a Warrican delivery to slip where Cornwall took a fine low catch to complete the series sweep for West Indies.

Earlier in the match, West Indies piled on 409 in the first innings and earned a 113-run lead by bowling out Bangladesh for 296.

West Indies won the first Test in Chattogram by three wickets thanks to an unbeaten double century from Mayers.

Bangladesh won the preceding three-match one-day international series 3-0.