(ESPN Cricinfo) – A maiden Test century for Justin Greaves headlined a dominant day for the West Indies against Bangladesh on day two of the Antigua Test.
After his 115 helped West Indies post 450 for 9, West Indies bookended the day with two Bangladesh wickets, leaving the visitors 410 behind with eight wickets in hand.
century, which propelled the West Indies to a sizable total.
It was a fine recovery after slipping to 261 for 7 despite an overnight score of 250 for 5. Greaves shared a 140-run eighth wicket stand with Kemar Roach, who batted for more than four hours for 47, his highest Test score in his 15-year career.
Greaves’ unbeaten 115 justified his Super50 form, where he struck three consecutive centuries earlier this month. He made a patient effort, striking just four boundaries in his 206-ball stay. It was the perfect follow-up to the nineties that Alick Athanaze and Mikyle Louis had scored on day one to lay the foundation.
Bangladesh continued to give away strong positions with the ball, toiling for 144.1 overs but unable to bowl out the home side. Hasan Mahmud took three wickets, all of them on the second day. Taskin Ahmed toiled hard and even found the edge of Greaves’ bat once, but nobody appealed. The spinners, stand-in captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam, shared three wickets from their combined 73.1 overs.
West Indies declared, with Bangladesh needing to bat out a maximum time of an hour and 45 minutes. But there was no respite for them against the four-man West Indian pace attack. Zakir Hasan fell for 15 after he under-edged a Jayden Seales delivery onto his stumps. The left-hander struck three fours in his short stay, all off Seales, but was slightly unlucky with the ball shaving the leg-stump. Mahmudul Hasan Joy edged Alzarri Joseph for 5, shortly after he was dropped on the same score.
It was a long way from the start of the day for the visitors, having started the day in the best possible way by taking two early wickets.
Mahmud removed Joshua Da Silva with the fifth ball of the morning session, trapped lbw with a delivery that darted into his front pad. This was Mahmud’s first wicket in the game despite bowling well on the first day. It was also his 24th wicket this year, making him the highest wicket-taker in a calendar year among Bangladesh’s pace bowlers.
That number became 25 when Alzarri fell in Mahmud’s next over. Zakir took a superb two-handed catch at gully, reminiscent of how he opened the Pakistan tour with Abdullah Shafique’s catch at gully in August. If Bangladesh sensed they had their opening to bowl out the West Indies for under 300 runs, that was blunted by Roach.
He was the right type of foil for Greaves, who was willing to grind out the Bangladesh attack. Greaves handed the strike to Roach from time to time, as the pair didn’t allow any more wickets in the first session. There were only two boundaries in those 26 overs too, but that hardly bothered the home side, who needed a recovery.
Greaves started the second session with his third boundary when he pulled Taskin through midwicket. He, however, survived a caught-behind chance on 77 with neither Taskin nor wicketkeeper Jaker Ali (who was deputising for Litton Das after the first session) hearing a faint nick. It was only a replay on the big screen that showed what Bangladesh missed out on.
Shortly afterwards, a Roach single brought up the team’s maiden century partnership for the eighth wicket against Bangladesh. It was followed by a rain break of seven minutes, after which Roach slammed Mehidy over his head for his first boundary. Mahmud finally removed Roach with a fine angling delivery, clipping the top of his middle-stump. Their 140-run stand was the West Indies’ third-highest for the eighth wicket.
Greaves soon reached his century with his fourth boundary shot, driving Taijul through the covers. It was potentially his best shot of the innings and the landmark was only his second first-class ton.
West Indies declared in the 145th over of their innings, after their tail-enders Seales and Shamar Joseph struck some meaty blows. That left enough time for the bowlers to have a crack, which they successfully did.