SYLHET, Bangladesh, Nov 6, CMC – West Indies still hold a slight advantage over Bangladesh at the end of day two, thanks mainly to their pace attack and a heroic effort from their tailenders.
The Windies, who resumed the day on 235 for four, were rocked by a six-wicket haul from Bangladesh quickie Hasan Mahmud and were eventually dismissed for 356 just after lunch at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
Jayden Seales, Justin Greaves and Shamar Joseph then each claimed a wicket to reduce the hosts to 88 for three at the close of play, still needing a further 268 runs to avoid giving up a first innings lead.
To make matters more complicated for Bangladesh, question marks surround the availability of Shadman Islam to bat after he was taken to hospital for an MRI after twisting his ankle while fielding.
Earlier, the pair of Amir Jangoo and Justin Greaves put West Indies in prime position to post a formidable total after extending their fifth-wicket partnership to 106 runs.
However, Mahmud snared two wickets with successive deliveries to change the course of the match.
He first bowled Jangoo for 133 off 212 balls as he shouldered arms to an inswinger that cut back sharply and hit the top of off stump and with his next ball he found Roston Chase’s inside edge that flew behind to wicketkeeper Litton Das, to leave the score 264 for six.
Mahmud thought he had his hat-trick when Joshua Bishop was given out lbw, but the review showed the ball hit his inside edge before cannoning into his pad.
Greaves, who resumed the day on 35, reached his third Test half century soon afterwards off 104 balls by flicking pacer Taskin Ahmed into the leg side for two runs.
Bishop, meanwhile, chose to counterattack, hitting five boundaries in his knock of 23 off 25 balls to put the Windies within sight of the 300 mark.
But Das’ decision to stand up to Mahmud paid dividends when he executed a smart stumping to dismiss Bishop as he tried to drive through the offside to make the score 297 for seven.
The end seemed near when off spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz bowled Greaves for 51 four runs later, to leave just the tailenders remaining.
But Jomel Warrican scored an unbeaten 27, Shamar Joseph made 16 and Jayden Seales 15, as the last two wickets put on 55 valuable runs for the Windies before their stand came to an end after lunch.
Mahmud finished with 6-90, Hasan Miraz took 2-82 and Taskin Ahmed 2-90.
It didn’t take long for the West Indies to strike, with Seales enticing Nayeem Hasan to nibble at a short ball outside off stump which took the inside edge and went straight to Brandon King at first slip to leave them 13 for one.
The opening pair of Seales and Joseph then bowled four consecutive maidens to strangle Bangladesh’s batters and build pressure. That pressure eventually told when Tanzid Hasan’s powerful drive off Greaves was spectacularly caught by a leaping Kevin Wickham at cover point, to see the home side slip to 22 for two.
Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and Towhid Hridoy added 29 runs for the third wicket, but Joseph broke the stand by bowling the former for 18 with an absolute beauty that sent his off stump cartwheeling.
It took an unbroken stand of 37 between Hridoy and Mushfiqur Rahim to stem the fall of wickets and give Bangladesh hope of at least getting close to the West Indies’ first innings total.
CMC rb/26