History created by Windies in Chittagong

History created by Windies in Chittagong

This is the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out that the Asian cricket teams are playing Test cricket at home after a long time. Among the three ongoing matches involving them, one between West Indies and Bangladesh had a nail-biting end. The match started on the 3rd of this month, with the host considered as favourites against an inexperienced Windies side. On the morning of the first day of the match, Bangladesh captain Mominul Haq won the toss and decided to bat first. The hosts didn’t get the start they would have wanted and loot their experienced opener Tamim iqbal just for 9 runs when the total score on the board was 23. After that it was the turn of another experienced campaigner, Shakib Ul Hassan, who was making a comeback after more than one year of a ban from Test cricket.
The experienced Shakib in his first Test after the ban straight away showed his class and struck 68. It was also a day to remember for the spinner all-rounder Mehday Hassan, who played beautifully with tailenders and brought up his maiden Test ton, with the help of which Bangladesh were able to post a more than decent score of 430 on the board.
When the Windies came to bat they had a disastrous start as they lost 2 wickets just for 24 runs on the board. Then it was the Windies captain along with another experienced player, Blackwood, who both showed great character and completed their half centuries. As the game progressed, the luck seemed to be with the Bangladeshi centurion who picked 4 wickets and ended the Windies’ first innings at 259.
In the second innings as Bangladesh came to bat they already had a significant lead of 171 but they lost their openers once again very cheaply and were reduced to 2 down with just one run on the board. The 3rd wicket was down when the score was just 33. But after that the Bangladeshi skipper took control of the game and struck a fine 115 runs. At the other end he was well supported by his wicketkeeper batsman Liton Dass who also scored a valuable 69. In the latter part of Day 4, Bangladesh declared their innings on 223 for 8 and set a daunting target of 395 for the visitors.
Before the mountain-like target of 395, West Indies started the chase cautiously and added 39 on board without losing any wicket, but in the last session of the day they lost 3 wickets with only 59 runs on the board. Most people would have thought that the game was almost in the kitty of the hosts. But on the last day of this fascinating Test match at Chittagong, N Boomer and Kyle Mayers started grabbing attention as they went for lunch having survived the entire session and adding more than 100 runs.
After lunch as the game progressed, the two West Indies players started to take control of the game and in between the debutant Mayers completed his first ton as well. As tea time was just around the corner, the more than 200 runs partnership was broken and Booner was out after scoring a gritty 86. After tea, Windies were still behind by more than 100 runs but after that it was all about Mayers, who was adamant on not giving his hard work away. Along with him in the last session was the Windies wicketkeeper who contributed a handy 20 runs but it was the debutant who on Day 5 struck a double hundred and created history by chasing down the highest Test score ever chased in Asia. His cool, calm and composed innings of 210 earned him the man of the match on his debut as well.

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