After running leather for the entire opening day, Bangladesh fought back with the ball but Kemar Roach ripped into their batting, to leave them in danger of following on, at the end of the second day of the second Dhaka Bank Test match at the Beausejour in St Lucia yesterday.
After taking the last seven West Indies wickets for 124 runs, in an eventual total of 380, the visitors were in tatters at 104 for seven at the end of play. They need another 76 runs to avoid the follow-on, with three wickets standing.
Speedster Kemar Roach took 5/33 and fellow pacer Jerome Taylor 2/33, to leave Bangladesh with an uphill task of saving this match and the series. The West Indies lead the two match series 1-0, after their ten-wicket win in the opening Test in St Vincent.
Resuming on 246 for three, West Indies found runs hard to come and slipped to 269 for seven before the durable Shivnarine Chanderpaul coaxed 111 runs from the remaining three batsmen.
The Guyanese who was unbeaten on 85 in the first Test, was again left unbeaten, this time on 84.
Roach started the demolition with an early breakthrough, sending back Shamsur Rahman for one. Tamim Iqbal fought fire with fire and played a number of excellent drives through the cover region. He and Anamul Haque took the score to 43, before the latter fell to Roach. The Barbadian followed up with Iqbal to send shivers down the spine of the visitors. Iqbal was caught behind for 48 in 118 minutes off 75 balls with six fours.
Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahman and Mominul Haque both fell to Taylor as the home team turned the screws on the visitors.
Earlier, the West Indies resumed on 246 for three and with that platform, they were expected to push on. This did not happen, as the Bangladeshi seamers, used the slight cloud cover to good effect. Consistently bowling down the corridor of uncertainty, bat hardly met leather. Most of the times, Darren Bravo and Chanderpaul were leaving balls that had potential danger written on them.
The first run off the bat came after 35 minutes play. Prior to that there were only two no balls, for the scorers to pen. Bravo was put out of his misery four runs short of his half century and this led to a collapse. The left hander edged Robiul Islam to Rahim for 46 made in 190 minutes off 123 balls with four fours and two sixes.
Soon he had company in the pavilion, as three other men joined him. Jermaine Blackwood smashed two fours in 10, skipper Denesh Ramdin was a first ball 'duck', as was Kemar Roach as West Indies lost four wickets in the space of 18 runs.
In the midst of the procession, Chanderpaul brought up his half century off 125 balls with six fours and found an able ally in Taylor to take the score past the 300-run mark.
Taylor played some attractive shots that won approval from the small crowd.
The Jamaican scorched 40 and added 54 runs with Chanderpaul for the eighth wicket. He faced 32 balls and batted 41 minutes, hitting five fours and two sixes before holing out to Mahmudullah at long on.
Sulieman Benn teamed up with Chanderpaul to add another 52 runs for the ninth wicket to further frustrate the visitors. Benn finally fell for 25. Chanderpaul batted for 268 minutes, faced 198 balls and struck eight fours. Chanderpaul has now batted for 557 minutes in this series without being dismissed.
SCOREBOARD
WI vs Bangladesh
WI inns 1st inns
(overnight 246/3).
K Brathwaite c Taijul Islam b Shafiul Islam 63
L Johnson lbw Taijul Islam 66
K Edwards c Shamsur Rahman b Mahmudullah 16
D Bravo c Rahim b Robiul Islam 46
S Chanderpaul not out 84
J Blackwood c A Haque b Al-Amin Hossain 8
D Ramdin c Rahim b Al-Amin Hossain 0
K Roach c Rahim b Shaiful Islam 0
J Taylor c Mahmudullah b Taijul Islam 40
S Benn c Shaiful b Al-Amin 25
S Gabriel b Robiul Islam 4
Extras b8, lb4, w10, nb6 28
Total all out 380.
Fall of wkts: 143, 145, 185, 251, 268, 286, 269, 323, 375, 380.
Bowling: Al Amin Hossain 31-6-80-3 (1w), A Islam 27-7-80-2 (2w), R Islam 26-7-63-2 (6nb, 3w), T Islam 22-4-89-2, Mahmudullah 16-2-49-1, N Hossain 2-0-7-0.
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Bangladesh 1st inns
T Iqbal c Ramdin b Roach 48
S Rahman c Ramdin b Roach 1
A Haque c Bravo b Roach 9
M Haque c Blackwood b Taylor 3
M Rahim b Taylor 4
Mahmudullah not out 13
N Hossain c Ramdin b Roach 1
T Islam c Gabriel b Roach 12
S Islam not out 6
Extras lb6, nb1 7
Total 7 wkts 104
Fall of wkts: 14, 43, 62, 65, 68, 69, 89.
Bowling: J Taylor 15-4-33-2 (1nb), K Roach 16-5-33-5, S Gabriel 9-1-27-0, S Benn 2-1-5-0.