West Indies continued to dominate the first Test against Bangladesh in Antigua. The four-pronged pace-attack took seven wickets on the third day but Bangladesh did put up a bit of fight.
After losing a couple of wickets late on day two, Mominul Haque and Shahadat Hossain Dipu negotiated the first hour decently. While they didn’t add many runs, they kept the West Indies pace battery at bay. However, Shahadat fell on the stroke of drinks as Kemar Roach had him nicking to first slip.
Litton Das joined Mominul in the middle and the two experienced players stitched a 62-run stand for the fourth wicket. The two batters looked largely untroubled and kept the scoreboard ticking. Mominul reached his half-century soon after lunch and was looking good.
But the introduction of Jayden Seales saw the end of the left-hander who was out LBW. Alzarri Joseph bowled a testing spell in the second session and troubled Mehidy Hasan Miraz. However, it was Shamar Joseph who got the breakthrough as he got Das to drag one back onto his stumps.
Mehidy who battled through a tricky phase early, got a start but couldn’t convert that as Alzarri was rewarded for some good bowling. He bounced out the stand-in Bangladesh captain. At 166/6 and with most of the third session left, Bangladesh were in danger of being bowled out. They even needed another 84 runs to avoid the follow-on.
Jaker Ali, Taijul Islam take Bangladesh past 250
But Jaker Ali and Taijul Islam put on a stoic 68-run stand. More than the runs, they batted out time. The duo played out 19 overs. The resistance was ended by Alzarri who went through the defense of Taijul. The Bangladesh left-arm spinner made 25 off 63 balls.
At the other end, Jaker notched up his second Test fifty. But he didn’t last long after reaching the milestone as he holed out to give Justin Greaves his first wicket of the innings. The latter dismissed Hasan Mahmud a couple of overs later as Bangladesh were nine down.
Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam played out the last part of the day before the umpires called stumps due to bad light. Bangladesh ended the day at 269/9 and are trailing by 181 runs.
West Indies will be looking to wrap things up quickly on day four and bat at a decent rate before having another crack at Bangladesh. The visitors will want to continue to fight and put up a decent resistance.
BRIEF SCORES: West Indies 450/9 decl (Justin Greaves 115*, Mikyle Louis 97, Alick Athanaze 90, Hasan Mahmud 3/87, Taskin Ahmed 2/76, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 2/99) vs Bangladesh 269/9 (Jaker Ali 53, Mominul Haque 50, Litton Das 40, Alzarri Joseph 3/69, Jayden Seales 2/42, Justin Greaves 2/34).
