Roach, Seales put West Indies on the brink despite Taskin’s six-fer

Three-fers from Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales have ensured West Indies stand on the brink of claiming a 1-0 series lead in Antigua, and are only three Bangladesh scalps away from a comfortable win despite Taskin Ahmed’s six-fer on a 17-wicket Day 4.

After Bangladesh surprisingly declared their innings on the overnight score of 269 for 9 on the fourth morning – with a deficit of 181 – West Indies were bundled for 152 in their second essay courtesy of Taskin’s maiden Test fifer. The pacer bowled consistently in the channel outside off, and kept asking questions of batters to give the visitors hope briefly resulting in wickets at regular intervals.

Taskin was responsible for a couple of mini collapses, the first of which came in an extended seven-over spell with the new ball. Mikyle Louis lasted all of 18 deliveries before edging one to the keeper, and Keacy Carty fell soon after by offering a regulation take to the second slip. Shoriful Islam struck from the other end, removing the set Kraigg Brathwaite who also edged a low catch to Mahmudul Hasan Joy at second slip after making 23 off 35 at the stroke of drinks.

Kavem Hodge and Alick Athanaze put up some resistance in the second half of the session to take the home side to Lunch without further loss, on 61 for 3 with their lead stretched to 242, but the session had belonged to the visitors since their bold declaration call in the morning.

Both the batters used DRS to escape LBW calls early in the afternoon session, and Athanaze in particular started to find boundaries more often. However, Taskin put an end to their partnership by having Hodge knick one behind in what was Litton Das’ 100th Test catch as a ‘keeper. Mehidy Hasan Miraz made it a double blow for the home team by trapping Athanaze LBW in the following over as West Indies slipped to 93 for 5 which soon became 95 for 6 as Taskin cleaned up Justin Greaves cheaply for his fourth of the morning.

At the stroke of drinks, Taijul Islam joined the party and ended the early counterattack from Joshua da Silva on 22 off 18 deliveries. At the other end, Alzarri Joseph’s luck finally ran out after a couple of drops, and Taskin then cleaned up the tail with the wickets of Shamar Joseph and Roach to turn his maiden five-wicket haul into a six-fer that kept Bangladesh’s fourth-innings target to a tough but respectable 334.

However, the batters let them down once again in Antigua. Roach struck thrice with the new ball in a collapse of 23 for 4 from which the tourists could never recover, and their hopes of putting up a fight for a draw were dashed rather quickly. Litton launched a counterattack, but that threat was snubbed quickly by Shamar. Skipper Mehidy managed to stitch a couple of useful partnerships – notably with Jaker Ali – to keep the hosts at bay for some time, but Seales’ twin strikes late in the day left Bangladesh reeling at 109 for 7 before bad light forced early stumps.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 269/9 decl and 109/7 (Mehidy Hasan Miraz 45; Kemar roach 3-20, Jayden Seales 3-31) need 225 to win against West Indies 450/9 decl. and 152 (Alick Athanaze 42; Taskin Ahmed 6-64, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 2-31)