NORTH SOUND: Bangladesh’s well-known vulnerability to fast bowling was on display again on Thursday, with the visitors crashing to 76 for six at lunch after being put in to bat against the West Indies on the first day of the first Test at Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
Bangladesh were reduced to 45 for six after double strikes by Kemar Roach and Kyle Mayers, as well as a wicket each by Jayden Seales and Alzarri Joseph, before captain Shakib al Hasan (27 not out) and Mehidy Hasan provided enough resistance to prevent an almost exact repeat of the debacle of four years earlier, when they were routed for 43 on the first morning of the series at the same venue.
Roach wasted no time in getting among the wickets, despite Kraigg Brathwaite’s decision to bowl first.
The senior seamer struck with the second ball of the match, as Mahmudul Hasan wafted carelessly at a wide delivery, allowing Nkrumah Bonner to take the diving catch at third slip.
In his next over, Roach bowled Najmul Hossain between bat and pad, increasing the burden on Tamim Iqbal’s shoulders.
Tamim, who had scored a century in the lone warm-up match against a Cricket West Indies President’s XI, looked up for the challenge and went past 5,000 runs in Test cricket during his innings, joining the absent Mushfiqur Rahim as the only Bangladeshis to achieve the feat.
He did, however, lose Monimul Haque to Seales, with Jermaine Blackwood snatching the chance at second slip, before falling for 29 when a loose leg-side flick at Joseph gave wicketkeeper Joshua da Silva a simple catch.
Mayers, the West Indies’ bowling hero in the series-clinching 10-wicket victory over England two months earlier, then picked up where he left off in Grenada with two wickets in his first over.
Liton Das prodded forward indecisively, giving da Silva a simple catch, and two balls later, replacement wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan fell leg-before, offering no shot to a big inswinger, becoming the fourth batsman to go out without scoring.
Shakib, whose Test future has been in doubt for the majority of the past year, played some expansive shots and was fortunate to escape when Seales could only get his fingertips to the ball running back from mid-on when Bangladesh captain heaved at Roach.
