Bangladesh inch ahead in first Test
Bangladesh spinner Mehidy Hasan (2nd-L) celebrates the wicket of West Indies batsman Jermaine Blackwood (C) on the third day of their first Test at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on Friday. — AFP photo
Sports desk:
Bangladesh gained further ground against West Indies on the third day of their first Test on Friday as they ended the day on 47-3, leading the visitors by 218 runs at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
Skipper Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim remained unbeaten on 31 and 10 runs respectively after first innings’ centurion Mehidy Hasan took 4-58 to wrap up West Indies innings for 259.
West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite top-scored with 76 and Jermaine Blackwood also scored a fighting 68 but their lower-order batsmen couldn’t replicate what Bangladesh’s tail-enders did in the first innings as they lost their final five wickets for just six runs to hand out a 171-run first innings lead to the hosts.
Bangladesh began the day one bowler short as Shakib Al Hasan, who bowled six overs on the previous day, didn’t enter the field due to an injury he suffered while fielding on day two.
His fellow left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, however, gave Bangladesh the perfect start by removing overnight batsman Nkrumah Bonner (17) in the first ball of the day.
The hosts were hoping that the early breakthrough would initiate a batting collapse in the inexperienced batting line-up but that wasn’t to be as debutant Kyle Mayers and Brathwaite then started taking the attack to the Bangladeshi bowlers and added 55 off just 67 balls for the fourth wicket.
The partnership came to an end when Brathwaite mistakenly left a Nayeem Hasan delivery, which pitched way outside the off-stump but turned judiciously to crash into the timbers.
Mayers, who escaped a leg before shout against Nayeem when he was batting on 24 as Bangladesh chose not to review the decision, fell to Mehidy who trapped him in front for lbw for 40.
Jermaine Blackwood and Joshua Da Silva (42) then put forward strong resistance against the Bangladesh attack as they stayed together for 42.3 overs and added 99 runs for the sixth wicket stand.
After toiling the entire post-lunch session, Bangladesh managed to send both of them back in the final two overs before tea break with Silva bottom edging Nayeem’s ball to wicketkeeper Liton Das and in the following over Blackwood nicking Mehidy’ down the leg-side delivery to Liton’s gloves.
Post- interval it took Bangladesh only 19 balls to sweep the West Indies tail with Mehidy striking twice and Taijul taking the final wicket.
After gaining a healthy first innings lead, Bangladesh’s second innings got rattled by a double blow in the second over as Rahkeem Cornwall trapped Tamim Iqbal lbw and just one ball later made Nazmul Islam edge the ball to Blackwood at slip to remove both batsmen for a duck and reduce the hosts to 1-2.
Tamim, who was out for a duck for the 33rd time in his international career, joint most for a Bangladeshi cricketer alongside Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, referred his decision but the third umpire upheld the original call.
Shadman Islam, who scored a patient half-century in the first innings, played out 42 balls before finally giving way to Shannon Gabriel’s relentless short pitch bowling, giving a catch to wicketkeeper Silva for five runs.
Mominul continued playing sensibly and Mushfiq gave him ample support as the pair ended the day without any further damage.
