Bangladesh Seal First Test Win Away From Home

Bangladesh Seal First Test Win Away From Home

Bangladesh players celebrate their landmark win.

©Brookes La Touche Photography / Digicelcricket.com

Bangladesh 238 & 345 (Tamim Iqbal 128) beat
West Indies 307 & 181 (Mahmudullah 5-51) by 95 runs
Scorecard
First Test, Arnos Vale, Saint Vincent, day five

Mahmudullah returned a five-wicket haul on debut to spin Bangladesh to a maiden Test victory overseas as they bowled the West Indies out for 181 to clinch a 95-run success in Saint Vincent.

Missing strike bowler and captain Mashrafe Mortaza due to injury, they bundled out a makeshift West Indies team, rocked by a player strike, in 70.1 overs to bring to an end a topsy-turvy, entertaining match.

The day started with Bangladesh looking to push on and build themselves a lead of 300 but they were unable to control the target for the West Indies as a burst of wickets, instigated by vice-captain Darren Sammy's haul of five for 70, saw Bangladesh bowled out for 345.

Shakib Al Hasan was dismissed for 30 and Mushfiqur Rahim made 37 before the last four batsmen all failed to reach double figures as Sammy and Kemar Roach (3-67) ran riot.

That left the West Indies a target of 277 in a minimum of 80 overs and they got off to a poor start when both openers Dale Richards and Omar Phillips departed for 14.

Travis Dowlin and Floyd Reifer, the next two men on the scoresheet both fell for 19, both men playing patient, almost painstaking innings before David Bernard showed he was up to the fight with a defiant innings.

He was to remain stranded on 52 not out, no doubt frustrated as wickets  tumbled at the other end.

Off-spinner Mahmudullah had earlier removed Reifer and Dowlin and he struck to remove Chadwick Walton for ten, the wicket-keeper facing nine balls and hitting one of those for six, Ryan Austin (4) and Roach (3).

Sammy hung around for 42 balls in also making 19 before he became Shakib's second victim of the innings and the leg-spin of Mohammad Ashraful accounted for Nikita Miller and the game was done when Tino Best (9) was trapped in front by acting captain Shakib.

As obvious as it may sound, the West Indies badly missed the experience and the application of their senior players - a team with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, to name but two, would likely not have been bowled out in such quick time but Bangladesh could only play against the team put before them and they cannot be blamed for internal problems in the Caribbean.

Their first win overseas, and first anywhere since their landmark triumph over Zimbabwe back in January 2005, will rightly be celebrated and they showed signs that they are making progress, particularly with the innings of Tamim Iqbal and the ability to bowl a side out without Mortaza.

The second Test starts in Grenada on Friday 17th July.

© Cricket World 2009

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