West Indies crumble against spin after Mahmudullah's career best knock
Photo - BCB
|| CF Correspondent ||
Mahmudullah Riyad hit his career best 136 after which spinners put West Indies in all sort of troubles by reducing them to 75 -5 as Bangladesh tightened the noose of the second Test on day two at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
Mahmudullah’s innings was complemented by three half-centuries from skipper Shakib Al Hasan (80), Shadman Islam (76) and Liton Das (54), paving the way to compile a hefty 508 before being all out in the first innings on Saturday.
With huge total on the board, the four-pronged spin attack of Bangladesh went all guns blazing on an increasingly deteriorating pitch to leave West Indies in a state of embarrassment.
Offspinner Mehidy Hasan and left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan led the way, spinning the ball viciously as the visitors slumped to 29-5 inside 12 overs.
Shakib made the breakthrough in just first over, knocking off the middle stump of Kraigg Brathwaite for 0, to trigger the collapse.
Mehidy Hasan then ended Keiran Powell’s (4) uncomfortable stays in the crease with a slider and Shakib fooled Sunil Amrbis (7) with a turning delivery.
West Indies batsmen failed to show the required patience to let them unravel quite spectacularly.
Mehidy Hasan then struck twice in his consecutive over --with a straight delivery that flattened Roston Chase’s (0) off-stump and got the better of Shai Hope for 10, with a delivery that kept low.
The much-needed resistance came from Shimron Hetmyer and Shane Dowrich who used their feet nicely against Bangladesh’s four-pronged spin attack and shared a valuable 45-run in an unbroken sixth wicket stand.
At stumps, Hetmyer was batting on 32, with Dowrich on 17. But still it needs 234 runs to avoid the follow-on.
Earlier, all 11 Bangladeshi batsmen reached double digit figure for the first time in its cricket history to rally the side, making it just 14th occasion in Test cricket’s history.
Shakib and Mahmudullah combined for a 111-run for the sixth wicket stand to provide the solidity after Bangladesh resumed the day on 259-5.
The visitors broke through fast bowler Kemar Roach (2-61) who had Shakib caught by Shai Hope at gully after the batsman hit six boundaries in an innings lasting for 139 balls.
Liton Das paced the innings with 62 ball-54 and shared 92-run with Mahmdullah to further frustrate West Indies.
The partnership looked dangerous until Das played a reverse sweep to throw away his wicket and left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican (2-91) then won a review to remove Mehidy Hasan for 18.
These two wickets in quick space gave West Indies’ hope but Mahmdullah who cut past point for a boundary to raise this second century in last third match, kept the things right. He smashed 10 boundaries in his 242 ball-136.
He shared 56 runs for the ninth wicket with Taijul (26) and 36 with No. 11 batsman Nayeem Hasan (12 not out), to help side propel past 500 for the ninth time, and second against West Indies.
