Untidy cricket by Bangladesh and a record opening partnership in Tests for West Indies against Bangladesh contributed to them reaching 246 for 3 at stumps on the first day of the second and final Test at the Beausejour Stadium on Saturday (September 13).
Leon Johnson (66), the debutant playing in place of Chris Gayle, and Kraigg Brathwaite (63) put on 143 for the first wicket after Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and chose to field first. Their stand eclipsed the previous record (131) established by Gayle and Wavell Hinds in Dhaka in 2002.
Yet, as well as the makeshift opening pair performed, Bangladesh’s opening bowlers aided the opponents with an indisciplined effort through the morning session, ironically when the pitch was at its most helpful to the seamers. Despite a much-improved performance in the second session, when Johnson and Brathwaite were removed within the space of a couple of runs, Bangladesh’s efforts to make further inroads into the batting line-up were thwarted by their own errors in the field.
Kirk Edwards was put down off Shafiul Islam at the start of his innings and although he eventually departed in the final session, the missed opportunity presented to Shivnarine Chanderpaul could prove far more costly. Dropped at second slip off Al-Amin Hossain when only on four, the 40-year-old will resume on the second morning on 34 alongside Darren Bravo (44). They have so far put on 61 for the fourth wicket, but at a snail’s pace, occupying 144 deliveries despite conditions that seemed ideal for batting and notwithstanding their well-established reputations as the two most accomplished batsmen in the West Indies squad.
Johnson displayed a much more positive intent in the afternoon period following a nervy first morning of Test cricket. Brathwaite, fresh from a patient double century in the first Test in St Vincent a week earlier, also stepped up the pace. After crawling to 61 in the first two hours of the day, the pair accelerated without taking too many risks immediately after lunch with the inexperience and general ineffectiveness of the Bangladesh bowling exposed once again. Johnson hoisted the first six of the innings, a straight hit off Taijul Islam on his way to a maiden Test half-century while an edge though the slip region to the third man boundary off Shafiul took Brathwaite to fifty.
It was Shafiul who finally made the breakthrough after a frustrating first half of the day as Brathwaite essayed a shot that was completely out of character, chasing a very wide delivery and succeeding only in slicing a catch to Taijul at backward point. Taijul then struck almost immediately with Johnson being adjudged leg before wicket. Johnson, 27, deliberated too long before requesting a television review of the decision and was left to regret his tardiness with replays suggesting that the delivery would have spun past legstump.
