Mahmudullah does it again; Bangladesh look to win their first ever test series

By anand
for Cricketain.com

Published: July 18, 2009

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Rahul Bajaj

Amidst all the controversies surrounding West Indies cricket at the moment, the second test match between West Indies and Bangladesh started with the hosts looking to draw the series by winning this match and Bangladesh knowing that they just need a draw to win their first ever test series. But when the teams took to the field it looked the other way around with Bangladesh being the more aggressive team of the two.

The start of the match was delayed by 30 minutes due to a damp pitch and not surprisingly Shakib al Hasan decided to bowl first on the damp pitch. West Indies got off to a good start with the opener Richards playing a swashbuckling innings of 69 from just 80 balls. But they lost their way in the middle with another legendary West Indian batting collapse before ending on a good note with a fighting partnership between Dowlin and Ryan Austin. But on the whole, West Indies played some really bad cricket throughout the day. At least four batsmen just threw their wickets away. You would expect a little more application and determination from a team which is trying to save a test series on their home soil. West Indian batsmen kept playing bad shots to get out and Bangladesh cashed in on it! In the end, West Indies was bowled out for a meagre 237 and Bangladesh was 35-1 at the end of Day 1.

West Indies dominated the first session of play with both openers — Richards and Omar Phillips putting up a good stand of 60 for the first wicket. Things started changing as soon as Shakib al Hasan introduced spin into the attack.

Shakib himself made the first breakthrough when he got Phillips caught at deep mid wicket for 23. As the Bangladesh spinners tied up the West Indians, Richards continued to play his strokes reaching his fifty of just 64 balls.

Shakib introduced the hero of the first test Mahmudullah just before the lunch break and he was greeted by Richards by hitting his second ball for a six over mid-wicket. But in the same over he was deceived by a well flighted delivery and gave an easy return catch to Mahmudullah to leave West Indies at 104-2. Two balls later, Mahmudullah took his second return catch with Hinds, who was rightly termed by Tony Cozier as a domestic cricket bully; as he failed to keep down a straight drive while Mahmudullah took a good low catch. Interestingly, Mahmudullah has not been doing anything out of the box like some other bowlers try to do. No doosras, no arm balls, he just bowls orthodox off breaks and keeps deceiving the batsmen. West Indies went into lunch at 107-3.

Floyd Reifer, captain of West Indies, who has looked uncomfortable against spin throughout the series, was the first to fall after the interval for 1, lbw by a straight Mahmudullah delivery. Wickets kept falling after that as West Indies slumped to 160-7.

Meanwhile, Dowlin stood firm at one end playing a patient innings and waiting for the bad balls to come along. And he finally got some support in the face of Ryan Austin who provided him able support and both of them took West Indies past 200. Austin fell with the score at 219 hitwicket by a Shahadat Hossain delivery. The ninth wicket too went quickly as Tino Best was bowled by Enamul Haque, who has come into the team in place of the injured Mortaza, for 0. Dowlin in the meantime was sticking it out at one end and he added 17 runs for the last wicket with Roach before falling 5 short of a well deserved century to leave the West Indies at 237 all out.

For Bangladesh, the bowling honours were shared between Mahmudullah, Shakib and Enamul Haque with all of them picking up 3 wickets each while Shahadat Hossain chipped in with 1 wicket.

Bangladesh came out to bat with just 10 overs remaining in the day’s play and managed to go to the close of play with just 1 wicket down. Imrul Kayes was the only wicket to fall caught behind by Walton of Darren Sammy for 14. Bangladesh was 35 for 1 at the end of Day 1 with Tamim Iqbal unbeaten on 14 and Enamul Haque unbeaten on 5.

After being bowled out under 250, West Indies has some serious catching up to do if they want to have any chance of saving this test match and stopping Bangladesh from winning their first ever test series.

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