west indies 250 for 5 (Louis 97, Athanaze 90, Taskin 2-46) Bangladesh
After the Louis-Athanaze pair were beaten by the spinners, Justin Greaves and Joshua Da Silva scored freely against the new ball for the second time towards the end of the day. The match was called off after 84 overs as rain started to fall and the light was poor.
Bangladesh’s fast bowling trio of Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam and Taskin challenged West Indies early on, but Lewis held his ground. Hasan continued to beat him outside the stumps. Shoriful tested him around the off-stump, with his deliveries always threatening to take shape. Taskin used a wobbly seam and occasionally bowled a yorker, putting pressure on Louis to fish him outside off.
Shoriful, who got more swings from the Sir Curtly Ambrose end than from the Andy Roberts end, was playing his first Test since mid-August. He had missed the previous five Tests but was in harmony with the red ball. He brought down Kraigg Brathwaite, who tried to dig in despite no runs flowing from his bat. Meanwhile, Lewis waited for a short ball and scored 24 points with a pull shot.
Taskin removed Brathwaite, trapping him lbw with a hint of inside movement hitting his bat. Taskin ended up with a tame dismissal as Keacy Carty was caught mid-on when he couldn’t keep his wrist-bending whip down. Brathwaite scored four runs off 38 balls while Carty finished with an eight-ball duck.
St. Louis found Kavem Hodge coming a little closer as he attempted to rebuild the inning. The pair crossed four boundaries before lunch but were united in the second session.
Louis brought up his fifty when he hit Taskin with a punch to the ground for a boundary. Hodge then hit Taskin with a square cut, but it didn’t last too long. Hodge, trying to score his second run off the bowling of Mehidy, made 25 after Taijul’s throw at long leg made him considerably short despite a dive.
Athanaze tried to speed up the run but was met with sustained discipline from Bangladesh. In the afternoon, spinners Mehidy and Taijul played a tight match. Athanaze skied two balls just out of the fielder’s reach. One of them, with the top edge pointing toward the centre, could have been a catch if Taskin had moved a little faster. Athanaze hit Mehidy with a four-sweep, but failed to connect with several reverse sweeps in the second session. Louis, who had lifted Taskin above the bowler’s head four times towards the end of the second session, was mostly quiet in his approach.
Athanaze took the lead in increasing West Indies’ scoring rate after tea. He started the last session with two square boundaries and finally reverse-sweeped Mehidy for four.
Louis then got into the 80s by lofting Mehidy for the first six of the day. Then, when Mehidy was 90, she accidentally dropped Louis. Louis, nearing his maiden century, picked off Mahmud for the ninth boundary and Athanaze also opened at the other end.
He swept the tie line and hit Taskin for four successive runs in the 71st over, hitting a cut and a flick. Athanaze recorded another comeback win after thoroughly sweeping Taijul through the first six games.
As the play progressed, Mehidy removed Louis, charged at him and was caught at slip, which was well caught by Shahadat Hossain. After three overs, Taijul had Athanaze behind. With both batsmen gone in the space of four runs, small chances were allowed on the second day.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
